IPS 3525 ,,j,v 

.U7 V5 

copvi qyIq Emanuele 

Prince of Piedmont 



JAM£S MURMELL 



^0" J^ Price, 75c. or 3s. J0 J^ 



Vittorio Emanuele 

Prince of Piedmont 



-A. Romantic Play- 
By JAMES MURMELL 




PHILADELPHIA 
franKIin Printing Company 
514-520 Luaiow St. 
I903 






THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS. I 

Two Copiet Recoivec j 

AUG i7 1903 • 

1 Copyright Entry 
CLASS -5" XXc No 

coPY B. a 



Copyright, 1903, by the Franklin Printing Co. 



First published on tiie fifteenth day of August, 1903, simultaneously 
in England and the United States of America ; and sold by Samuel 
French at 89 Strand, London, W. C, and at 24 W. Twenty-Second 
Street, New York. Price, 3 shillings or 75 cents. 

The Franklin Printing Co., 514-520 Ludlow Street, Philadelphia, 
Pa., proprietors of the copyright in Great Britain and America. 
All rights reserved. 



^ 



ViTTORio Emanuele, Prince of 
Piedmont 



PERSONS REPRESENTED. 

Of the Austrian Party. 

Ferdinand I, Emperor of Austria. 

Prince Clemens de Metternich^ Grand Chancellor to 

the Emperor. 
Archduke Ranieri, Viceroy of Italy. 
Leopoldo II, Grand Duke of Tuscany. 
Fr.\ncesco V, Duke of Modena. 
Carlo III, Duke of Parma. 
Francesco, Duke of Calabria, Prince Royal of the Two 

Sicilies. 
Count Veri, his companion. 
Thomas Baron Ward, Chamberlain to Parm., formerly 

his jockey. 
Betting, Captain of Guards to Parm. 
Stefano, Equerry to Princess Adelaide. 
A Gardener. 

Of the Italian Party. 

Carlo Alberto, King of Sardinia. 

ViTTORio Emanuele, Priuce of Piedmont, his son, dis^ 

guised as a gardener, 
Lisio, Minister near the King. 
Pietro, confidant to Vit. Em. 
Earl of Inverness. 
Pantaleon, his man. 

Archduchess Elizabeth, wife of Ranieri. 

Princess Adelaide, their daughter. 

Countess Laura, her companion. 

A Widow. 

Joanna, her daughter. 

Austrian courtiers, guards, messengers. 
Sardinian soldiers. Common people, etc. 

Scene. Cernohhio, and mountains rising from 
Lake Covno, Italy. 

Time. Middle of the Nineteenth Century. 



VITTORIO EMANUELE, 

Prince of Piedmont. 



ACT I. 

Scene. Villa Pizzo, Lake Como. 

Enter Vittorio Emanuele and Pietro disguised as 
gardeners, zvith another Gardener. 

Vit. Em. It needs a king to make earth dutiful. 
We hold our circuit over landscape gardens 
Ruling down crime among the flowers and shadows ; 
And put our hands to uses more divine 
Than God's appointed kings in human blood. 

Piet. But is it here the tyrant Austrian 
Will sit in judgment over Lombardy? 

Gardener. The Emperor and courtiers every one ? 

Vit. Em. You too ? pry fairly under yonder sun ; 
Challenge Apollo's fiery coursers ; run ! i° 

[Gardener ivithdrazvs. 

Piet. Your Royal Highness, shall you love to death, 
Your life long tarrying in Lombardy? 
For God's sake lead me to my country's wars, 
And all for glory I shall live and die. 

Gardener. [Aside] Making Italian mischief, Austria. 

Vit. Em. You idled yesterday, time turned to sorrow ; 
Now double-quick along ! hunt up to-morrow ! 

[Exeunt Piet. and Gardener. 

Enter Lisio. 

Lis. Victor Emmanuel, Duke of Savoy, 
Prince Royal of Sardinia ! all hail ! 

Vit. Em. God's silence man ! What prudence carried 
you 20 

So far from Piedmont's walls of soldiery ? 

Lis. I am to call a truce with Austria. • - 



6 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act I 

Vit. Em. How hale my kingly father ? 

Lis. Very ill, 

Gray-haired with thoughts and old before his time ; 
And Piedmont wants you. 

Vit. Em. I am banished thence. 

Lis. Shall I inform His Majesty whereto? 

Re-enter the Gardener zt'iY/zTHOMAS^BARON Ward aside. 

Vit. Em. As you appreciate existence, no. 

Lis. This will be music for the King's ear. [Aside. 

Vit. Em. Go. 

Lis. [Aside] Bay filly will convey me thence and 

hither -9 

Before my words are ready hence and thither. [Exit. 

Ward. [Aside] Conspirators ! [E.rit Gardener. 

Vit. Em. I have drunk so much summer 

I have but faint ambition to pull weeds ; 
For spring and love go to the head like wine. 
Make me attend the gold acacia, 
Althea, and the sorrowful bluebell. 

[Reads. 

merry angel, come along 

To live in, love and love in song. 

1 zvhisper zvhen I think of thee 
A thousand lines of poetry; 

A thousand hours I live in slumhers, ^o 

/ sleep in dreams and dream in numbers; 

But all the zvords the Muses bless 

Can never tell thy loveliness. 

[Drops the paper. 
Who comes ? It is the Princess, it is she, 
Comes marshaling her graces. O divine, 
Indiademed, adorable excess 
Of loveliness, how exquisite art thou ! 
Thy beauties bursting like the asphodel 
Make lovers in their charmed circle faint ; 
Eyes cannot look on so much loveliness. so 

Enter Princess Adelaide. 

Adel. You loitered yesterday all afternoon. 



Act I PRINCE OF PIEDMONT i 

Vit. Em. The gloss of all completed flattered us. 

Adel. How did this morning find so much undone ? 

Vit. Em. Since day by day new things develop still. 
Your Highness, say, what orders ? 

Adel. Would you hke 

The noble Order, say, of Leopold ? 
Or else the Order of the Golden Fleece ? 

Enter the Duke of Parma. 

Bid him go dig [to Pariii.] . That is my order, go. 

Vit. Em. But know the mind is higher than the 
hands. [Going. 

Parm. Swallow your foolish tongue. 

Vit. Em. Sir ! By the Lord ! ^o 

The high-born fall, and poets sing of change ; 
The smallest boy climbs highest in the tree. 
What dynasties have come to beggary ; 
What fools have grown in wisdom up to fame. 
If he, reported for a fool, be none 
Then he is one that says so. [Exit. 

Parm. Treason here ! 

Add. But knozv the mind is higher than the hands; 
High-minded cabbage-planter, is it not ? 
The smallest boy climbs highest in the tree; 
Dear me ! what lofty treason flatters him ? 7° 

You could imagine him with me in love. 

Parm. Alas, what mortal man is not ? 

Adel. How nice. 

Parm. Give me a thousand breaths in a balloon 
To take me sailing into paradise. 
Your expirations are ambrosias. 
And in and out goes heaven, every breath. 
Oh pardon me that I stand off abashed 
In such uncommon presence. 

Adel. Will you kneel ? 

Parma. Aly Parma is the heart of Italy; 79 

Come to my heart. [Kneels. 

Adel. [Kicking off his bonnet] Could Italy to boot? — 
I have a vaccination counter love. [Exit. 

Parm. Where ? — You are too infernal ! sweet indeed ! 



8 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act I 

The Duke of Parma flouted out of love ! 
I have been fairy-led ; it makes me mad ! 
For all your mocking I shall wrap you yet 
Close as a jewel in a miser's fist ! 

Ward. [Coming forivard] She is the spirit of non- 
chalance still. 

Parm. Home with you, you eternal follower. 

Ward. As far as Parma? 

Parm. Rebels ! Parma too, 

Just when I counted on my nuptuals ; 90 

My heart, my Parma. Rebels ! wring my heart ! 
The half of Parma shall be gibbeted. 

Ward. You love not Parma ; Lvicca sold we well ; 
Th' exchequer. — 

Parm. Borrow on my character. 

Ward. Your character is mortgaged to the full. 
Sardinia loves the duchy. 

Parm. Loves it? takes it! 

Thieves ! they are wolves ! bones, hungrier than wolves ! 
Gall ! I am hungry for the blood of some ; 
Thieves' blood ! or water, for they have no blood ! 

Ward. If you might compass Princess Adelaide. — ^°° 

Parm.. Her ? bite from under her complexion flesh ! 

Ward. The Princess ! she approaches. Sir, your 
bonnet. 

Parm. Kneeling a dove's breath from her petticoat. 
Then twice I breathed on the divinest curse, 
The roundest garter in the universe ; 
And thought of Love in traces out of breath. 

Ward. Who comes along under the downy wing ? 

[Parm. and Ward withdrazv. 

Parm. Up pops this Dukeling of Calabria, 
Crown Prince of the Two Sicilies — huzza ! — 
Who uses bigger words than he can spell ; "° 

Down go my aspirations flat as hell. 
He by undoing me gets that reward ; 
She tramps on my dead body to the Lord. 

Ward. Her graces lightly lift her from the earth. 

Parm: A Spanish fascination with the fan 
And parasol, whose fragile fussiness 
Not any trifle of adornment yet 



Act I. PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 9 

Could equal with an elegance so sweet. 

Spread out your moth-wings, angel-blossom, fly ! 

Re-enter Princess Adelaide zvith Stefano. 

Ad el. Encourage first that gardener; then mind, '^° 
Prepare us horses slippery to the wind 
And quick to leave the sunshine in a cloud. 
It is mid afternoon, and we shall go 
On saddled grayhounds to Mount Bisbino. 

[Exit Stef. 
Enter the Duke of Calabria. 

Cal. I know it by what spirit speaks within. 

Adel. That jargon of the heart, the tongue translates ; 
The tongue — the heart's interpreter — I call 
The serpent in man's body, false to both. 

Cal. If you would listen to the heart itself ; 
That clock is false by which my heart goes right. '3o 

Adel. Your Royal Highness, tell me, what is love? 

Cal. An angel's sickness when it touches you. 
Your fairy fingers playing on one chord 
Have touched my heart with pains most exquisite 
Like melodies until the lutestring split. 

[Exit Adel., then Cal. 

Parm. [Coming forzi'ard] Tormented bv a solitary 
fly! 
If wishing were but killing one might die. 

Ward. [Coming forzvard] Which sounds the better, 
murder Naples' Prince? 
Or, kidnap this same Princess ? [ Withdraws. 

Farm. [ Withdrazving] One, or both. 

Re-enter Princess Adelaide and the Duke of 
Calabria. 

Adel. Him that will marry me, still let him woo ^4^ 
But by th' inspired art of poetry. ^ 

Cal. Whose namby-pamby does she harp upon ? 

[Finds Vit. Em.'s paper and reads. 
What charmed angels kiss thy cheek 
Till roses play at hide-and-seek ; 



10 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act I 

While, from the middle of a zvreath, 

Betzveen kept kisses thou dost breathe! 

The cheek the lilied roses Ued 

Is Hushing zvith the roses red; 

Oh, let the one Hozuer crush the other 

Till zve that catch the fragrance smother! 'so 

Adel. Then did you write those verses ? 

[ Takes the paper. Exit. 
Cal. It was I. — 

To scatter glass to trot on barefoot. — Ah ! [Exit. 

Ward. [Coming forzi'ard] While first I happened 
here a gardener, 
After a private conversation low 
With your Sardinian envoy Lisio, 
This love-lorn gardener — look, there he goes.— 

Farm. [Coming forzvard] Spy! spy! the torture his 

confessional. 
Ward. Your Royal Highness, let him be confessed ; 
He wrote the verses. 

Farm. Naples' verses? Ha I 

Eureka ! forth, and hold a travesty ; ^^^ 

Make caricatures of poor gardeners 
Receiving grace where rank was mocked away. 

[Farm, and Ward zvithdrazv. 

Re-enter Princess Adelaide and the Duke of Cala- 
bria foUozved by Count Veri zaith a cabinet of rings. 

Cal. The echo to my wish your footfall brings. 

[To Veri. 
All these are wishing rings. 

Adel. So many rings 

Before a thumb to wear one? 

Cal. Which presumed 

To be more graced than gracing ? 

Adel. » Who can say? 

Cal. Wear this for me and never wish in vain ; 
Wish something greater than Two Sicilies, 
Wish all the world and have it ; so I swear. 

Adel. Oh, what is that, a diamond or a star? ^7o 



Act I PRINCE OF PIEDMONT ii 

Cal. This was the first whose phosphorescent Hght 
Bewitched the miners in Brazil from gold 
To leave its dust to children ; or was this 
That sphinx of jewels lost by Charles the Bold, 
A messenger to Metz was murdered for, 
In whose most faithful stomach found again ? 

Veri. Yes, maybe. 

Ad el. Oh, it quickens the fine wits ! 

The diamond ! symbolic, to a charm, 
Of purity and peace ; and attribute 
Of beatific vision. — No. 

Cal. . Why not ? ^^o 

Adel. No, and no other reason. 

Cal. Only no ? 

Veri. Lay under contribution all the world 
To manifest its equal, but in vain. 

Adel. No. 

Veri. Nature guarded it with jealousy. 

Cal. Behold ! the gage d'amour. 

Adel. O Turkish stone 

Which takes the consequences of a fall ! 
Its heav"n-like orb the wicked angels wore. 
Precipitated from the skies unhurt. 
But then, it fades ; and then alas for love ! 

Cal. Pray take this emerald ; one faultless gem '9° 
Which was the Goddess Esmeralda once, 
By lucky guardians spirited away 
Far from Peru to Naples. 

Adel. Emerald ! 

Divine, immortal, incorruptible ! 
Of sin and trial conqueror. — Too green. 

Cal. Pray take it. 

Adei ' I? 

Cal. Why not ? 

Adel. I have enough. 

I cannot entertain you with much cause. 

Veri. One of the rarest jewels in the world ; 
Why not ? 

Adel. Who knows ? for reasons of my own. 

Cal. This fire-opal over Czernowitz, ^oa 

A region inaccessible of old. 



12 V IT TO RIO EMANUELE Act I 

Lay like a glowworm's lamp in porphyry. 
Call it the Burning Moscow ; bring it south, 
For frigidness extinguishes its fire 
And fragile splendor. 

Adel. Oh, opal of the sun, 

Green fire and white, yellow, and sulphur flame. 
And hyacinthine red of darker fire. 
Exquisite tints ! 

Cal. From filmlike laminae 

This charming iridescence scintillates. 

Adel. Prismatic hues, in their eternal chase ^'^ 

Bewildering the sight which anciently 
They strengthened, and assumed to give delight 
To the immortal gods invisible. — 
But opals are unlucky latterly. 

Cal. O Delhi, Delhi ! for that Peacock Throne 
When Nadir Shah, freebooter of the East, 
Stole all the famous jewels of his time : — 
Rich rubies — rich ! whose tint of pigeon's-blood 
Is due to gold, and led by elephants 
In pomp and triumph to the capital ; ^-° 

Rare amethysts out of whose murex-blood 
The golden rosiness of rubies flamed, 
For amethysts of most admired tint 
Are sapphires mixed with rubies ; pearls galore 
With iridescent nacre eloquent — 
Sev'n hundred Saladin's — ofl:spring of tears — 
By divers taken twenty fathoms deep 
Mid incantations wild, past hungry sharks ; 
Ethereal diamonds, as from the tops 
Of mountains flashing out the rainbow from ^3^ 

A thousand facets — one the Mount of Light 
By the Godavery River cast ashore 
Five thousand years ago, an evil eye 
That Juggernaut long followed ; jacinths red, 
Whose vividness is fire : cinnamon-stones 
Still flaming gold ; sapphires the royal blue 
Of heaven in the Pentateuch, and cold — 
The Eye of Allah one, whose history 
In Bagdad was of blood ; rare cymophanes, 
Where showers of silver float on golden green, ^40 



Act I PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 13 

Incomparably far more beautiful 

Than ever the luminary of the moon ; 

Still thousands ! chamfered, with prismatic sheens ! 

Whose tones and textures might bewilder us ! 

Veri. You are a magnet for the costliest. 

Cal. In nature's laboratory is there none ? 

Adel. Inside of that Pan hippocamp that swims 
Down the Sangaris River one is found — 
So say astrologers — and named the king — 
Asteria ! effulgent in the dark ; ^s.° 

And from within it moving, radiates 
An opalescent lustre — with no end 
Of magic virtues ! 

Veri. But, for working days ; 

A jewel now whose value is debased. 

Cal. Pray take this ruby. 

Veri. Do ; this is the one 

Among the five great paragons of gems. 
Of all material things the costliest. 

Adel. The stone I want — away ! — bring that or none. 

Veri. A dragon, hellward lighting on his course, 
From teeth distending dropped this coal of fire. ^^'^ 

Cal. But Old Man of the Mountain laid him low. 
And snatched this ruby from the devil's own pit 
So deep the day was nothing in that air. 
From that benighted region yovi might see 
The stars in heaven shining at high noon ; 
What star amongst them all of fire so fine ? 
Through Jamshid's porphyry walls his light would 
shine. 

Veri. A jewel of more price beyond all bounds 
Would tax the Kingdom of Two Sicilies. 

Adel. The people taxed ? Ah! 

Veri. If you have a mind ^^o 

To be possessed, but haggle over cost, 
Why not a magnet ? Venus in loadstone 
Drew to her bodv Mars in iron. 

Cal. ' Behold. 

Adel. Love's talisman enthralling God and man ! 

Cal. Discovered where the lightning struck, for this — 
Exceeding in antiquity all else, 



14 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act I 

Whose sigil, fabulous, Not made by hands, 

And from beyond the limits of this world — 

Presumes its advent with the aerolites. 

Sev'n thousand years this lovely bust of Eve, ^^ 

In Elephanta far, that Indian isle, 

There in the rock-cut temple was adored ; 

Sev'n thousand years. Count Veri ? 

Veri. Like as not. 

Adel. The one I said is just the gem I want ; 
No other shall I have : that sapphire star 
Whose rays of lightning from the center shoot 
Against the sun ; a philtre powerful, 
And worn by Helen of Homeric fame, 
Who owed it all her conquests. 

Veri. Pity 'tis 

You want that gem — 

Adel. Bring that or none. 

Veri. And none ^^° 

So poor in Naples' Royal. — 

Cal. Helena 

Had need of magic, maybe. 

Veri. You. — 

Adel. Away! 

Veri. Eureka, here it is ! its mystic orb 
Laughs like the pupil of a maiden's eye. 

blessed star, the very stone you want ; 
Surprising beauty, rare and magical. 

Adel. Out ! now I have a reason : you despoiled 
The royal treasures at Capodimonte. 
Be off ; your rusty gemmel hurry home ; 
Capodimonte Palace lies in lack. ^"° 

Fly, waste no time ; don Peter Schlemihl's boots, 
And slight the ground cross-country with great steps. 
[Exeunt; Adel. driving out Veri and throzving 
the loadstone at him, Cal. follozving. 
Ward. [Coming forzvard] Shall we relieve Count 

Veri of?— 
Parm. [Coming forzvard^ We shall. 

1 wish I were the wind to blow on her, 
To hurry her away to Switzerland. 

Ward. Here comes her equerry ; but mine no less. 



Act I PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 15 

For her detention on Bisbino Mount. 
While night, narcotic of poor innocents, 
Makes sleep delirious, away with her ! 

Re-enter Stefano bedaubed. 

O Stefano, loblolly ! you are changed. 310 

That traitor gardener no doubt did this ? 
Poor fellow ! 

Stef. Yes. 

Ward. Which Princess Adelaide 

Inspired, by heaven. 

Stef. Retribution then ! 

Ward. The noble Stefano, good by a spy 
Affronted, dirtied, spattered. — He shall die. 

Stef. Be whipped to death if I. — 

Ward. Be Stefano ; 

Go straightway to the Princess Adelaide, 
And if she laughs then she connived at this. 

Stef. Revenge! [Exit. 

Ward. This Stefano shall guide them ill 

Till darkness shivers round the mountain spurs ; 320 
And then from Mount Bisbino's pilgrimage 
Let her be hurried off to Switzerland. 

Parm. The spy ? confront him with the Emperor. 
The jewels carry afterwards away 
When we are lost among the mountain tops 
And I do busy Princess Adelaide. 
And whether spy. Prince, Princess, be undone 
Not I shall be a truant to events. {Exit Ward. 

Re-enter Count Veri with the Duke of Modena and 
Countess Laura. 

Veri. Fair lady, grace. To your Imperial 
And Royal Highness of Modena, hail. 330 

A jewel for a jewel ; get for this [Gives Mod. a ring. 
Another hand than Princess Adelaide's ; 
Calabria has borne away the palm. 

Parm. Picture Modena's sovereign Duke in vain 
Kneel down to Princess Adelaide. 



i6 VITTORIO EMANUELE. Act I 

Lau. Glory] 

Your Royal Highness, straighter than a mast 
Stood he ! 

Mod. Dalila's daughter ! well informed. 

Lau. Just picture to yourself the Duke of Parma 
Come lizard-like to Princess Adelaide. 
Read novels of more price, Your Royal Highness, 340 
Till you are out of practice with cheap scenes. 

Farm. Does she deride me ? 

Mod. Better yet informed. 

/ Farm. Curst tattle ! Nothing is ridiculous 
Considered in the fashion it is done. 

Lau. Displeased for other men's displeasure, sick 
To sicken others ! you were ever. — 

Farm. So ? 

Mod. It only is a girl, a peevish child, 
An infant ; but almightily preferred. 

Lau. His Highness Royal and Imperial, 
The Most Serene Prince Ranieri comes. 359 

Enter Archduke Ranieri, Archduchess Elizabeth, 
and Attendant. 

What comes of Lombardy when you are dead ? [To Ran. 
Great men outgrow their offices which grow 
To tyranny when left to little men. 

Ran. Back trips our daughter with her suitors, look. 

Farm. Is this her birthday that so many praise ? 

Lau. No other conversation in the world. 

Ran. How semiconscious of herself she blows. 
The queen of summertide, the flower of all, 
One perfect work outside of heaven's gate. 

Eliz. Too faultless for correction ; as confirmed 360 
In her perfections by her father's say 
As by persuasion of her looking-glass. 

Ran. This is the summer of the summer girl. 
Her mother's maiden excellence teach her, 
And in the world will live no lovelier. 

Re-enter the Duke of Calabria and Princess Ade- 
laide, zvith others. 



Act I PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 17 

Your mother never was so sweet. 

A del. How sweet 

Were you, Madame? 

Elis. Too much for comfort. 

A del. _ Oh !— 

But your Imperial Highness — 

Ran. Baby mine, 

Omit the mystery and tell the tale. 

Adel. In every cranny, every interstice, 370 

Behold ! poetic records of true love. 

[Reads. 
That lip that to the music tips 
Is szueeter than all other lips. 
Except one other dipped in wine, 
That one like Cupid's bozv and line; 
From that, the kisses Cupid shoots 
At random makes all mortals brutes. 
Sweet lips, siveet hallozued lips, O queen, 
What magic music flozvs betzveen ! 

Cal. What thing is that? 

Adel. Do you renounce your own ? 380 

Cal. Give it to me. 

Adel. Content — when bats fly straight. 

[Exit follozved by Cal. 

Parm. Look how the Duke would fidget out of it, 
For she reads poetry of low degree. 

Lan. Inspired lines that so forlornly run 
Her cheek she blistered with an acid drop. 

Parm. Done by a gardener. 

Lau. Impossible, 

Re-enter Princess Adelaide follozved by the Duke of 
Calabria. 

■Adel. I fear my friend, Duke of Calabria, 
Has rhymed me out of earth beatified ; 
Between the stars of heaven where is space 
To edge in sideways for another flight. 390 

Cal. One day I met the oddest marvelous dog. 
You know among dogs I take precedence ; 



r8 VITTORIO EMANUELE _ Act I 

But straight he came, just glanced his snaky nose 
A little sideways, over butted me 
. And went along as unconcerned, you know. 

Adel. Most probably the other dog was blind. 

Farm, Who can divine these words' true oracle. 

^d^/ Who knows ? [Glances at Cal. 

Cal. [Aside] Now to evaporate. 

Lau. [To Adel] Hist— hush ! 

Adel. What ails you? [To Lau. 

Lau. Hist — Your Highness. — Humph ! 

Adel. Go by. 

[Glancing at Cal. reads. 

My God! how heautifid art thou ! ^°° 

And is it after doomsday nozv 

That houries fare from paradise 

So far, and open both their eyes? 

Then merry angel come zvith me 

To live in love of poetry ; 

And I shall soothe thee into slumbers 

To sleep in dreams and dream in numbers. 

Parni. A well of ink that will run never dry. 

Cal. Forgotten things remembered plead with me ; 
To stay is to tickle the devil. 

Adel. Tickle him. 410 

Cal. But when the devil laughs he scorches so. 
Midway upon the bridge of my poor thoughts 
Perplexity weighs e'er so heavily. 
Send on the train then ; laugh and let me go. 

Farm. Perhaps some drunkard wrote it unaware. 

Cal. [Aside] The Duke of Parma knows a thing or 
two. — 
I must, I am compelled, I hate to go. 

Adel. The business of great princes might go down 
If they were in the airy scale of love. 
You are not in with me Prince Charming, go 420 

Aly troubadour, but of the latter day ; 
I would not woo on this side paradise 
The paragon of pretty presences 
To put his thousand matters in a sieve. 



Act I PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 19 

True knight, a stone of your own digging bring ; 
Nor dare to set a pebble in my ring. 

Cal. There lies a ruby hidden in Pegu 
My death, not perils can divide from you. 
Your benison I shall come take away ^^ 

About the time the sunflower bends to pray. {Exit. 

Adel. Then Heav'n be with you, never God say nay. 

Lau. Your Highness was a fool. 

Adel. I, jealousy? 

He is too slight I know, but he is young 
And politic ; his lips might move the world 
To commendation ; Jove's own voice is his ; 
The aureola of poetic light 
In him is centered ; he, prince royal too ; 
Rich, bountiful, prince royal, king elect. 
My heart is in my mouth. 

Parm. Expectorate. 

He is a Jew if ever Jew was lean. 440 

Adel. For all a kingdom he might feed upon, 
Too slight he is ; and being yet no Jew, 
He will not fatten, notwithstanding pork. 

Lau. But you read verses of low origin ; 
So says the Duke of Parma. 

Adel. [To Parm.] Still you act 

Like a big man up to a little game. 

Laii. The gardener's verses ; Prince's, not at all ! 

Adel. Summon that vagabond ! 

Laii. Ho ! Adamist ! 

Adel. Call louder.— Dog ! 

Lau. A dog would never come. 

Parm. He is not only a conspirator 450 

Against the sovereign rule of Austria ; 
But traitor whose high treason dares approach 
Your own most glorious person. [Exit. 

Mod. I shall see 

That my own body-guard arrests this spy 
To bring him to the bastinade and death. [Exit. 

Lau. The Prince. — 

Adel. The perjurer ! some poison ink 

For his repudiation. 

Lau. Righteous act. 



20 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act I 

Re-enter Stefano bedaubed as previously, followed by 
Pantaleon. 

Pan. Buzzard's perfumery, spit. [To Stef. 

Lau. O poor man. 

Stef. Judgment ! 

Lau. For what? 

Stef. For Princess Adelaide 

Against this gardener. A cruel love 360 

But szveet, says I ; it has a petal lip. 
Scoundrel ! 

Lau. Says he? 

Stef. Say I ! 

Lau. And what says he ? 

Stef. Like any coward runs. 

Lau. No doubt he laughs ? 

Stef. His ears appear to ridicule and grin. 
Coward ! 

Lau. Go wash your countenance away. 

Pan. This is not such cologne for you and me ; 
We cough at what flies count perfumery. 

[To Veri, who goes out. 

Lau. There goes a candidate for stewardship. — 
Who guesses he is not? [Aside] — Complain to him. 

[Exit. Stef. after Veri. 
Hum! 

Pan. In the course of retribution, see, 470 

The donkey is as nimble as a pea. 

Re-enter Vittorio Emanuele. 

Adel. More poetry ! Are you afraid of it? 

Vit. Em. You tantalize your meaning. 

Adel. Knave, you lie. 

Pan. Saint Peter, gossiping in stormy skies. 
Shall hear the angels sing, Saint Peter lies; 
Then others. He has done the like before; 
Still others. Shall he do as much no more? 

Adel. Insufferable lines ! What's on your clothes 
Where vermin dine ? Go love the bitten bat, 
And make yourself a prey to parasites. 486 

Lau. But he has better clothes. 



Act I PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 21 

Adel. Has fleas ! 

Pan. Bugs ? 

Lau. Humph ! 

Adel. Dog! 

Vit. Em. I am guilty. 

Adel. Wretch ! 

Pan. Anathema. 

Vit. Em. I leave you ; not to curse me. 

Adel. Go, then go.. 

Vit. Em. Princess, forgive. 

Adel. Villain begone ! 

Pan. Beg on. 

Adel. Lie, steal, but go ; steal anything but time. 
What have you underneath your jacket ? 

Vit. Em. Sweat ! 

Your Highness, I am froze in my own sweat. 
So fare you well. Viceroy of Italy, [ To Ran. 

Heav'n favor you ; but we shall meet again. 489 

One fault lies heavy. Madam, fare you well. [To Eli::. 
And you, good angel you have been to me. [To Lau. 
This parting weakness hopes forgiveness. 
My flowers, Princess, I bequeath to you. [To Adel. 

Blossoms of figs I brought Your Highness first ; 
And they were secret as bad consciences. 
Red tulips blooming next, they blushed aloud. 
For all, I keep the better secret yet. 
Now the pale rose is withered. Where the lake 
Looks up at twenty mourning cypresses, 
The terrace, at the entrance of the valley, soo 

Is mellowed for white dittanies of Crete ; 
But let not expectation patch up that 
With blossoms blowing ; nothing will grow there 
Save wormwood now, O Lady of the Lake, 
Until another hand drops in the seed. 

Lan. When you are tired of her remember me. — 
Condone his trouble. [To Adel. 

Adel. Fly, sweet simpleton, 

A Fury hunts that body, which the Dukes 
Of Parma and Modena urge to blood. 

Vit. Em. That which you know, Your Highness, that 
is true. sio 



22 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act I 

What better could your evil genius do? 

My wings to heaven I have fancied you ; 

And ne'er an angel is so celebrated 

In heaven's avifauna all these years — 

Thrones, dominations, principalities — 

Not the Madonna by the Deity, 

As you by me in adoration, love, 

Pro'strate idolatry ; by all my soul, 

My soul's eternal panic forcing now 

Its past and its hereafter in this vow. [Exit. S2» 

Pan. How many a noble fool misunderstood 
Makes everlasting dole. I knew he would. 

Elis. Such luxuries in art, riches in voice, 
Make humble birth and poverty things choice. 

Adei. Now he will slander me. 

Elis. And so he should. 

Ran. He is too much amazed. 

Lau. Too learned, poor fooL 

When a surveyor with a transit mused. 
This gardener, by trigonometry 
And calculus, popped out and righted him. 
All that I knezv, cried the surveyor then. sao 

Ran. Ha ha ! 

Lau. And so we laughed outrageously. 

He made the ghosts of Grecian monarchs screech 
Once when a student with a Homer came ; 
That raised the hue and cry. An oracle! 
Then Latin students, Russian, Hebrew, French, 
Or Portuguese, or Chinese, everything, 
Came now and then to vanish satisfied ; 
And here on Tuesday was a schoolmistress 
To find the island, Vecta ; Noiv, quod he. 
The ancient Vecta is the Isle of Wight, 540 

So soon she fancied his reply oblique. 
In the humanities, in anything 
He was more knowing than that Wandering Jew 
Who, coming down the centuries, peeps through. 

Elis. The man is more than his pretentions, true. 
He was the tutelary deity 
Of the garden ; all the flowers, losing him, 
Will either die or turn to profligates. 



Aet I PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 23 

The banksia rose, whose gorgeous masses stood 

Erect upon the promontory, droops ; S5o 

The cooHng plant of the Madonna now, 

Whose graceful tapestry of foliage 

From the mortuary chapel downward wept, 

Dropping its delicate and lilac buds, 

Shall die ; the air, be better for the flowers 

That give their souls in fragrance to the winds ; 

And every bloom that does not die of grief, 

Decapitate it, send it after him. 

Ran. Do so — an hour hence. [To atteitdant. 

Elis. Give him his own flowers. 

Lau. No more than twenty settings of the sun 560 

Have slipped ahead of May-day's glory yet. 
Since one true deed I know in Italy : 
All night the gardener his vigil kept 
By Carlo Trezzo's death-bed — him you knew, 
Whose breath would wither garlic while he lived, 
A creature little like God's handiwork ; 
Sun up, the gardener came forth to toil 
With the endurance of a driven ox ; 
Still as the twilight followed, went again 
Until the wizzard like a mummy slept. 570 

The nightly vigil and the death-watch, done ; 
Appeased, the widow ; and the orphan, fed ; 
For goodness' blessed sake he buried it. 
Myself I pity that he worships you. 

Ad el. He makes enchanted poetry, no doubt. 
How long, in mercy, have you noted this ? 

Lau. Beguiling night-dew from the rank green grass 
Into a painted basin for your bath 
I heard a strain in agony — of love — 
Whose burden was. The Princess Adelaide. sSo 

Re-enter the Duke of Modena zvith Guards. 

Ran. The Emperor approaches, stand aside. 

Mod. What! Has this forfeit to the law escaped? 

Adel. Oh, better marry twenty than kill one. 

Re-enter the Duke of Parma. Enter Magnificoes, 



24 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act I 

Courtiers, Guards, etc. — Trumpets. Enter the Em- 
. PEROR OF Austria^ Prince Metternich, the Grand 
Duke of Tuscany, the Duke of Calabria, and 
Count Veri. 

Emp. [To Ran.] Our trusty and right well-beloved 
uncle 
And councilor, most happily are we 
Alighted in our Lombard Kingdom's midst 
To find so warm our welcome everywhere. 

Pan. Italians, grim as death, while he sneaks by 
Shout viva to the syndic following. 

Emp. What were you thinking there, Pantaleon ? S9o 

Pan. The wisest think the things most foolish,. Sire ; 
As sudden scintillations in the fire. 
So wise are they they only think these things ; 
What they articulate the gods admire. 

Emp. It was with satisfaction unalloyed 
That we admired the gallant army by, 
Whose splendid ranks we love to look upon 
As powerful support of principles 
Whereon the order of the nation rests. 

Ran. Sire, thanking evermore Your Majesty — ^°° 
Whose presence at this cheering spectacle 
Seemed, to the glory of our races bound 
In this grand confraternity of arms. 
Not only its own precious recompense 
But the most powerful encouragement — 
I weep for Lombardy recalcitrant, 
Th' exchequer's drain, the source of all our woes, 
In whose repression are but days of blood. 
The Magyars we have guided from the steppes ; 
The Tyrol hunters, from their mountain spurs ; ^^° 

The Styrians, from their green valleys, too ; 
From Banat's and Bohemia's woodlands, more ; 
A blinded million to the sacrifice. 
O Austria, who shall count them ? Italy — 
Between you two too many ghosts have come ; 
The air is foggy with the wings of death ; 
The day of reconciliation, past. 
These passionate Italians, let them go ; 



Act I ■ PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 25 

All to the greatness, the prosperity, 

The glory, happiness of Austria, ^-^ 

Your Majesty, and all your family. 

Emp. Spielburg and vengeance for this gang of boys 
That shoot their grandpapas to hear the noise. 
Rebellion is like one hot day in winter 
That draws out flies unto their death the next. 
We shall continue to associate 
Ourself with high regards of Lombardy 
Afar and near. 

Met. ' To Your Imperial 

And Royal Apostolic Majesty, 

Of Austria Emperor, of Bohemia ^^o 

Slavonia, Hungary, Dalmatia, 
Croatia, Lombardy, Galicia, 
Illyria and Lodomiria 
And Venice King, Archduke of Austria — 
Rich tidings from the Most Illustrious 
Field-Marshal, Count Radetzky, seat of war ; 
A glorious battle near Novara won ; 
Sardinia's reckless Majesty hemmed in. 

Emp. It was a wind that blew contrarily, 
But insufficiently to take the tide. ^40 

Adel. Revered old king, more than an ancient saint. 
He counts his seasons by olympiads. 
By leap-years, Sire. 

Emp. No chance for you that way. 

Adel. He is a dear old darling. Never mind, 
A rascally bad boy he had ; and dead ? 
Victor Emmanuel, Duke of Savoy ? 

Met. They pushed an argument concerning coal. 
The son declared coal's cleanliness ; the sire, 
That this conclusion showed an addled brain ; 
And so they parted. 

Adel. [Going'] Is it possible? ^^° 

Met. The Prince Francesco, of Two Sicilies 
Prince Royal too. — 

Emp. Ah, Princess it was you 

We consecrated to Sardinia's son. 

Adel. Lord help me from severe Prince Metternich, 
The prince of politics, he frightens me. [E.rit. 



26 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act I 

Lau. Go beg your master, Earl of Inverness, 
To overtake us on the mountain. [Exit, 

Pan. Yes. [Exit. 

Cal. Long life to Your Imperial Majesty, 
And iron constitution ! 

Emp. I have none, 

No constitution, and I never shall. ^^"^ 

Cal. The populace on Naples' sacred King 
Have forced a constitution, but belike. 
He would as leave have none, Your Majesty. 

[Slips out after Adel. 

Met. Events that have occurred in Naples late 
Have filled the sovereigns with disquietude 
Who charged themselves with Europe's peacefulness. 
There was good reason to anticipate 
Th' alliance, which had founded the world's peace. 
Would prove successful crushing a new power — 
Than France's military tyranny ^70 

No less tyrannical nor terrible — 
To wit, the power of popular revolt. 

Emp. Disloyalty ! 

Met. The monarchs, counseling, 

Have now agreed to end disturbances 
Throughout the Kingdom of Two Sicilies ; 
Invite His Majesty betake himself 
To Laibach, to be free to mediate 
Between his misdirected subjects — 

Emp. Well t 

Met. And States by their excesses jeopardized. 
The Most High, Puissant, and Illustrious Prince, ^^'^ 
Duke of Calabria is notified ; 
What is Your Royal Highness' pleasure, then ? 

Emp. What boy is that, bastard to royalty, 
Whose absence makes so slight of majesty? 

Met. Go some, inquire of the Prince's health ; 
And fetch him hotly to His Majesty. 

Tnsc. The Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany 
Presents his duty to Your Majesty. 
You see us driven from our grand duchy. 
O Sire, we climbed up in mightiness ^^ 

As little boys climb highest in a tree 



Aet-I PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 27 

Until the branches break. The people's love 
Would not be long returning to my son ; 
We crave assistance from Your Majesty. 

Emp. The people ? what of that ? I nothing know 
Of people, I do only know of subjects. 

Tusc. Although by special stipulations bound, 
By solemn treaties, European law, 
Inviolability of states and crowns. 

Yet, under egis of Sardinia, ^oo 

Came agents into Florence with designs 
Pushed to the utmost verge of hardihood. 
And took command of the grand duchy's troops 
That night the action of diplomacy 
By that of revolution was displaced. 
Then we, in their imperious demands, 
Raised up the Marc|uis of Lajatico, 
The people's idol, to conciliate. 
The quarter which, and the advisors whom 
He sought were the Sardinian embassy 710 

And leaders of the insurrection rife. 
And now the Marquis of Lajatico 
Who, in acceptance of his charge — that act — 
Had pledged himself to our authority. 
Was not ashamed to horrify his Prince 
With impious demands to abdicate. 
But what is worst, and what we most denounce 
To th' universal conscience. Sire, is this : 
To solemn treaties signatory, bound 
By stipulations of our sacred rights, 720 

The King of Piedmont none the less abets 
Th' illegal government of Tuscany 
Always subservient ; and every art 
Was used, and every violence employed. 
And faithful subjects all compelled to vote. 
Against their sovereign born upon the throne, 
For annexation to Sardinia. 

Emp. You were too liberal in Tuscany ; 
Oh, what a pity you forgot yourself 
Descended from the noble Hapsburg line ! ''^^ 

Tusc. To our beloved Tuscans we appeal 
Who for a centurv have called themselves 



28 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act I 

Happy under our House ; who do not share 

The wicked thoughts of their seducers — no. 

That nothing shall disturb their harmony 

I abdicate in favor of my son, 

And call upon all Europe's potentates 

To champion his birthright trodden down. 

Mod. The Archduke Francis, of Modena Duke, 
Presents his duty to Your Majesty. 740 

Our faithful troops that followed us thus far — 
A pious tribute to Your Majesty — 
O Sire, you have generously received. 
As much as has occurred in Tuscany, 
No less Modena has experienced ; 
We crave support no less, Your Majesty. 
The universe is at the stomach sick 
From swallowing a bitter pill called earth ; 
And peasants on earth's surface are as lice 
Devouring the thing on which they dwell ; 7So 

Such devilish disturbers of the earth, 
Such murderous tormenters of themselves. 
That they are warred at everlastingly 
By famines, earthquakes, elements, disease. 
Then we that are the deputies of Heaven 
Must heed the precedents of God Himself, 
And even up in carnage and revenge 
Upon the doers of this insolence. 

Parni. And Parma is as full of maggots too. 
During the long and painful interval 7^ 

Th' intriguers of Sardinia connived 
A.t like events in Parma when did we 
Forget our holy duty to protest 
In face of Europe, with a feeling still 
That what is just and honest and the word 
Of princes, faith of treaties, would prevail? 
And Piedmont is by spiteful treachery 
And violence aggrandized with the spoils 
Of the legitimate, the rightful prince. 
To all dynastic systems contrary. 77"^ 

What title had Sardinia to make 
Our Parma conquest's object? How can we 
According to the principles upheld 



Act I PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 29 

In Europe hitherto, be set aside ? 

Once more our sacred protest we pronounce ! 

Anathemas against the guilty ones 

From whom these hateful machinations rose ; 

In main, against Sardinia's sovereignty, 

Pernicious, sacrilegious, and usurped 

In violation of all public faith, 780 

All treaties and all principles of law ; 

And out of all protesting we protest 

Against the National Assembly, null 

Because usurping, which illegally 

Declared our forfeiture ; and we protest 

Against the entrance of the foreign troops ; 

Against the annexation realized, 

'Gainst whomsoever has concurred in it ; 

Against the right of transfer feigned ; against 

The universal suffrage, counterfeit ; 790 

Th' oppression then of terror ; against all 

The consummation of conspiracies ; 

And 'gainst the losses we have suffered thence ; 

'Gainst those that we shall suffer yet ; in short, 

'Gainst all the losses, all the injuries 

To which our faithful subjects are exposed. 

Still we protest, again, and still again ; 

The right of nations highly does protest ; 

From every monarch we demand support 

T' arrest the work of ruin, else High God ^°° 

Like victims multiply. We feel impressed 

With duties strong our faithful subjects toward; 

Our incontestable and sacred rights 

We finally declare, by Satan, no 

Adversity shall make us e'er renounce ! 

Rights ancient and acknowledged ! reconfirmed ! 

Imposed on us by providence divine ! 

Which we intend, by Heaven, to maintain 

In their integrity ! exultant still 

In that full confidence of princes' words ^'° 

And in the justice of Almighty God ! 

Emp. Well, well, we'll see about it. 

Farm. Shall't be said 

The Emperor, whom all the world conceives 



3Q 



VITTORIO EMANUELE Act I 



As under an imperious constraint 

To keep our sacred rights inviolate, 

Failed knowingly in his devoted word 

And sworn ? Ha, ha ! while Piedmont sacrificed 

The holiest of principles on earth 

In scorn of him ? 

Met. Your Royal Highness, pass. 

Farm. The conversation has not reached you yet. 8^° 

Emp. To pose for honesty you set the glass, 
But 'tis so thinly silvered on the back 
The damnable hypocrisy glares through. 

Farm. Faugh ! through the streets of Parma I shall 
breathe 
The breath of desperation ; I shall make 
The flagpoles gibbets and the streamers blood. 
Torrents of civil blood shall run knee-deep ; 
Convents and nuns shall be consigned to rape ! [Exit. 

Enter Thomas Baron Ward and Guards ivith Pietro 
and Gardener apprehended. 

Ward. Two Carbonari ready to unfound 
The pinnacle of state, Your Majesty. ^^o 

Piet. Assassins we are not ; but why deny 
What you will still believe, Your Majesty? 

Ward. This secret anarch would himself be hung. 
And witness nothing counter murderers. 

Emp. How many stripes can mortal flesh survive ? 

Ward. Sire, thirty lashes and they faint away ; 
Forty, they die. 

Mod. Let him have thirty. 

Emp. Do. 

{Exeunt guards with Piet. 

Gardener. He that informed the Baron, that was I, 
Why I arrested stand I cannot guess. 

Ward. I have no recollections such of him. ^4' 

[Piet. is heard to scream. 

Gardener. Mercififl God ! 

Mod. Let him be shot. 

Emp. Let him. 

Gardener. I who informed against conspirators ? 



Act I PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 31 

Ward. As false as fire with a charge of ice. 

Gardener. Who idolized, exalted, deified 
Your sacred, worshiped Majesty? no, no! 

Mod. If this be true you go to paradise ; 
In paradise keep better company. 

Gardener. Oh no. Your Majesty, for God's sake, no ! 
{Exeunt guards zmth gardener. Piet. is heard 
to scream again. 

Enip. Humanity in time's own fulness ever 
Requires a copious bleeding. 

Re-enter, a Guard. 

Guard. Bar the way ! ^50 

Re-enter Vittorio Emanuele ivith Pietro. 

Vit. Em. Tyrant, I hold you hostage ! Heavy hands 
The Austrians have laid on Italy. 

Emp. Guards, keep at distance. 

Vit. Em. Bleeding ! Think of that ! 

Then dream a dream of horrors and no more 
Repeat it. Witness ruined Italy ; 
No law — 

Emp. I am the law. 

Vit. Em. Too much. 

Emp. Enough. 

Vit. Em. Our noble families how paralyzed 
By espionage ; tortured when denounced ; 
Convicted by confessions pointed out 
To wretches being racked ; bound, sentenced, shot ! ^^° 
They in Modena have not wanted drugs 
To extort confessions by deliriums ; 
A little hunchback in the barrack close 
Was slowly burned alive at Brescia ; 
In Naples heads of victims they displayed 
In iron cages for the wives to view ; 
And three men of Ferrara — will you hear 
Of irons, hunger, tortures, hemorrhage. 
Sentence, and death ? Enough another died 
In prison that had whispered, IVecp for them! ^"° 



32 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act I, 

The dead shall rise before the judgment-day 

Against th' interminable deeds of blood. 

Now rises such a universal woe 

From confiscations, mulcts, imprisonments, 

Convictions, famine, death — such panic cries 

Of tortured, plundered, Hayed, proscribed, condemned, 

Hanged, poisoned, murdered, shot, stabbed, starved to 

death, 
By conquerors, usurpers, and betrayers! 
That Italy forgets a thousand years 
Of local jealousies in one strong hate. ^^° 

[Piet. opens a trap-door and disappears, fol- 
lozved by Vit. Em. 
Mod. Rat ! after him ! let him be flogged to death ! 

Enter a first Messenger. 

1 Mes. Milan has risen in rebellion. Sire, 
And cast the Austrians like devils out ! 
And now to bands of martial music trip 
The patriotic guard in light-blue plumes ! 
Th' Italian Tricolor — green, red, and white — 
Banners all colors of prismatic light. 
Flags, torches, drums, processions — suddenly 
Acclaim the heyday of th' astonished world. 

Emp. Too well reported. 

Mod. Beat this charlatan ! ^^o 

Enter a second Messenger. 

2 Mes. Your Royal and Imperial Majesty, 
The Viennese revolting run amuck 
Making a bloody circle round the throne ; 
Assassinated ancient Count Latour. 

The Ministers of Justice, Sire, have fled. 

Enter a third Messenger. 

3 Mes. A cry goes up. The Garibaldians! 
As thundered God, Destruction to the tvorld! 
Men saw the lig-htningf and down came the flood. 



Act I PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 33 

And such a panic cry rose never more 

Since Khaled going to the victory 900 

In Palestine, with inky eagles up, 

Shrieked Allah Achhar! and cut down the foe ! 

Mere boys rebel ! Our frighted soldiery 

Have fled to Camerlata ! 

Mod. Whip this knave ! 

Emp. Away to Tyrol hasten instantly ! 

Met. And I to England ! little love for me. 

[Exeunt severally. 



ACT II. 

Scene. Outside a Hut on the Mountain. 
Enter Vittorio Emanuele and Pietro. 

Piet. Hark! 

Vit.Em. What alarm? 

Piet. No coward for myself, 

I tremble for Your Royal Highness' sake. 
The Allegory of Blood-guiltiness — 
A danger in the wind from Austria — 
Fills me with throes heroic to defy 
The noise of nature. 

Vit. Em. Let the forest grow ; 

And now Pietro, go immediate^ 
To summon Garibaldi from the hills. 

Piet. Your Royal Highness, as a soldier thence 9 

I shall go blindfold in obedience. {Exit. 

Enter Widow and Joanna. 

Wid. We owe two years' rent to the landlord now. 
My God, he knows we won't run away from him ; but 
we shall ; we can't stand the neighbors. They knock 
against the wall at night, but my girl, she took a pair of 
dumb-bells, she did, and gave 'em a clash ; and they 
didn't knock any more, it scared 'em. She's one, but 
she's too proud. She's engaged to her Hannibal at sea 
nine years. 

Vit. Em. The bell would not ring. ^9 

Wid. My God, we have to keep that unhooked. It's 
such a sweet-sounding bell they all run to see who's 
there. My God, they're a low set. We're going to 
move out. They follow and cry, zvitch. My God, 
they're a low set. We might have been out long ago 
but my girl had a terrible cough, and the doctor gave 
a prescription. It was a terrible cough ; my God, it was 

34 



Act II PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 35 

a hack. She coughed the skin off her face ; my God, it 
was a hack ; and when she went to get the medicine 
the druggist wouldn't sell it, it was too expensive. 

Vit. Em. You are descended from anxiety. 3° 

The few are born to riches, bred to beauty ; 
They come into the world arrayed in purple. 
The rest come naked hither, why not all ? 
Why not the state death's chief inheritor? 
Ability high monarch ? birth dethroned ? 
Why not ? 

Joan. Why not ? 

Vit. Em. There would be monuments, 

Luxurious parks, great fountains in the land ; 
A fairy-land of poetry, the like 
Morpheus never bodied in a dream. 

Joan. The merry whirl of evening to be lit 40 

By the exploding flare of bonfires. 

Vit. Em. Wait till we have a state. 

Wid. A sin to think 

And treason to express — high treason — hush. 

Vit. Em. To dinner ! is it ready ? 

Wid. Signor, sit. 

Vit. Em. I know a grace : — To the invisible King, 
Lord of our breaking once again, 

royal Guest, Who zuith Thy zveary, living, 
Prefer'st the needy tvidozv's offering — 
Love-sacriUces! glory! praise! thanksgiving! 
Amen. 

Joan. Our dinner is not worth a grace. so 

Vit. Em. Are you ashamed of Heaven's recompense ? 
Let those ennobled idlers who accept 
Of Heaven's alms ungratefully be shamed. 

1 might have sat with an amphictyon — 

Believe me, I have dined with kings and queens — 

But I would sooner paxywaxy share 

Than glut the peacock of the millionaire ; 

For fortunes in the end will equal be, 

And these high-blooded prodigals on earth 

Shall be most destitute hereafter. 
Joan. Good ! ^° 

Vit. Em. For in that country a tribunal is 



36 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act II 

Of compensation weighing the abstract 
Of human efforts. 

Joan. Make me herald there 

To cry adjustment : Down zvith birth and wealth! 

Vit. Em. There will be other vices heavier, 
But poverty and virtue will be light 
As th' ever-winging bird of paradise. 
What has He given ? 

Wid. Air ; twice, thrice, and still. 

Vit. Em. Why, then starvation has invited me 
To sympathize with your necessity. 7o 

Wid. Already you have done so much for us — 
But all you have done will be done in vain. 

Vit. Em. In vain ? Joanna, what do you opine ? 

Joan. I care not. 

Vit. Em. If your mother starves? 

Joan. If I. 

It is' not difficult, so well begun. 
Death brings the cares of poverty to peace, 
Turns virtue's perseverance into bliss. 
Do you think father went to heaven ? 

Wid. No ! 

Joan. Oh, then the trysting-place inside the gates 
Of heaven will be wondrous pitiful ^° 

For lack of some where no thanksgiving is. 

Vit. Em. Have you heard ever how Prince Talleyrand 
Disrupted the Archbishop of Milan ? 

Wid. Oh, we are starving. 

Vit. Em. Ears to banqueting 

Till stomachs burst by proxy ! There the Prince 
Sat worshipfully. Here at his right hand 
His Reverence the Archiepiscopal 
Studied the satin table-cloth — drawn-work 
With thread lace overlaid — when all at once 
Olives and slender onions pleading tears, 9° 

The anxious oyster or submissive mussel, 
And luscious fig, came under his keen nose. 
Most delicate, observed His Grace, parbleu! 
Amontillado in the goblet too ! 

Wid. Let me repeat it, get it on my tongue. 

Vit. Em. Then there were distillations piping-hot 



Act II PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 37 

Charmed into bowls with scented onions rubbed ; 
A note of spring and broth from marrow-bones, 
A golden ladleful, and sherry. 

Wid. More ! 

Vit. Em. To the excited appetite came on ^°° 

Preliminary fish — the simple sole 
Or salmon swimming in a butter bath — 
Obliging sauce, and spiritual glass ; 
And next — 

Wid. My God, enough ! 

Vit. Em. By-dishes, thus : 

A mutton-chop with little chicken broiled, 
A green goose, sweetbread, or a ponderous ham, 
Or partridge pie ; and Medoc ; help yourselves. 
And here the piece substantial — beef that made 
The jaw-bone water, haunch of venison. 
And tender kid in priceless porcelains ; "° 

With dry champagne's ecstatic energy. 
Chaste pullets' bellies with their softy eggs, 
And grateful garnitures, a list too long. 
Yet scant to fill the Archiepiscopal, 
Who thought, O Circe for the sucking pig 
You barbacued in Aiaa: and stuffed 
His little belly zvith an olio 
Enchanted — thrushes, rolling herbage, zvine, 
And some potential juice too rich — that day 
Ulysses' mariners ivere turned to szvine! ^^° 

Wid. The big and bigoted unsorry hog. 
He would not leave a dry bone for a dog. 

Vit. Em. Next, sorbet to the church and cigarettes. 
Then bulky feet, prodigious goose livers. 
Or what more monstrous ? mixtures ! magical ! 
Parbleu! remarked the high Prince Talleyrand. 
His Grace, the fat Archbishop, answered, good! 
And ate like a watched sparrow. What fine fowls. 
Whose marked aromas separately flew 
Into the open nostrils ? turkey-poults ? ^30 

Grouse ? pheasants ? ortolans ? they were ; and what 
More rare ? the deliquescent figpecker ! 
Green salads that went tickling through the throat ! 
Wine colored like the robes of royalty ! 



38 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act II 

I hope that vou have yearning stomachs. 

IVid. ^ Yes. 

Vit. Em. Moil Dieu, my dear! remarked Prince 
Talleyrand, 
His Reverence ex-Bishop of Auton ; 
And caught the answer, / haz'e just begun! 
Like flint between the teeth — a fulsome sound 
From apoplectic looks. Immediately ^^o 

Came fat asparagus in osmazome, 
And cloud-like mushrooms with pink petticoats 
Fresh from the fairy ring on golden yolks. 
Hozv do you like it? spoke Prince Talleyrand, 
Vice Grand Elector and Grand Chamberlain. 
No answer deigned the holy, who but saw 
The single rose reared in the slender glass 
Stippled with leaf-like filaments of gold. 

Joan. Just like that breed of swine too fat to see 
And only capable of snoring sleep, ^so 

Whose mushroom noses, in a notch at rest 
Lest turning they be strangled, swineherds tap, 
Rap, with their ladles till they grunt for corn. 

Vit. Em. And ever afterwards the banquet grew 
Like fairy avalanches liquidly ; 
Tongue gobbled what the stomach never knew — 
The voluntary ices from fruit juices — 
Like fairy avalanches liquidly ; 
French flummery, or lemon sillibub ; 
The ancient strawberry, so big, thinks he, ^^^ 

Once giants picked them- from a pumpkin vine ; 
Rich cream, and angel-cake, liqueurs, chaste fruits 
From Eden's lavish cornucopia, 
Fruits candied, cordials singing in the glass. 
Brazil-nuts, filberts, cherries, creme de menthe ; 
Now, necessary savory. This, that. 
With ever necessary waits between. 

Wid. Aha, it sends the organs kiting ! 

Vit. Em. - Ho! 

Bring out the banquet bodily. 

Wid, The knave \ 

Vit. Em. He does not hear. 

Wid. Bring out the banquet ! ho ! '7o 



Act II PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 39 

Fit. Em. Hurrah for Talleyrand de Perigord, 
His Reverence ex-Bishop of Auton, 
Vice Grand Elector and Grand Chamberlain ! 
He chuckled, What is that? zvhat soothing spirit? 
(It was an aura from the coffee-mill.) 
Take this cigar, it is an Indian dream; 
Be master of Nervano's mysteries. 
Up curled the smoke ; down fell the Archbishop, 
A cream-faced, livid-shouldered, lock- jawed corpse 
Upon the bosom of Prince Talleyrand. ^^° 

Wid. My God! 

Vit. Em. S.apristi! the Most Reverend, 

His Grace, the Lord Archbishop burst! exclaimed 
Charles Maurice Talleyrand de Perigord, 
His Reverence ex-Bishop of Auton, 
Vice Grand Elector and Grand Chamberlain 
Of France, the Prince of Benevento, hip ! 

JVid. My hair, my teeth, my nails are falling out ; 
My God, I feel them rotting at the roots ! 
I sweat to hear my beating heart pump air. 
At midnight calling, Empty! empty! empty! ^'^^ 

Vit. Em. Much I have had, none lent, and little spent, 
Yet penniless and hounded as a spy. 

Wid. Then loot the Archduke's gardens in the night. 

Vit. Em. I cannot. 

Wid. Will not ! Cannot palsies zvill. 

Vit. Em. Why, then, T shall. 

Joan. You flatter us with lies, 

And pass us through the gamut of false hopes 
From a dog's hunger to a wolf's despair. 

Wid. But desperation is a three-armed thing; 
The devil take you tight between his teeth. 

Vit. Em. I say I will! is not my will enough? -°° 

Joan. Do, do ! we will, we will ! cut down the corn. 
Root up the cabbage, trample down the peas. 
Destroy the blessed gardens, pluck and die ! 

Vit. Em. Here come the Austrians. 

Wid. Kill ! beat them down ! 

Burn! make a judgment! Hell against the world! 



40 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act II 

Enter the Duke of Calabria, Count Veri, Princess 
Adelaide, and Countess Laura mounted; Ste- 
FANO on foot. 

Vit. Em. {Catching the rein of Adel.'s steed^ 
Where this forbidden hovel scarcely stands 
A ten-days' widow and her orphan waste, 
Despairing, starving ; pity ! give an alms ! 

Adel. Does justice dictate, Render aught for naught? 

Vit. Em. More tide is from the river than returns ^^° 
By that same channel ; some way it returns. 

Adel. On! 

Stef. Loose the bridle ! 

Vit. Em. Hew my arm away. 

To live is to deserve a livelihood ; 
The sufferings of famine pay for that. 
The beggar's music a poor penny earns ; 
Give him his due for his equivalent. 
Be bovuitiful ; I shall discharge the debt 
With th' utmost of my body, that shall I ! 
And what will you who live through such ? let starve ? 
You cannot. 

Adel. Beggars are a kind of thieves "° 

That steal our sympathies. Let go, I say. 

Cal. How long like this shall you contrive to live ? 

Vit. Em. Sir, what old witch is current sitting late 
Under the chimney dating Heaven's grace? 
They never fail who with intelligence 
Pursue the hard alternatives of right. 

Adel. Revenges', Stefano; have you enough? 

Stef. In highway robbery all we that thrive 
By personal attractions fare amiss. 

Vit. Em. That waning moon which yet like Cupid's 
bow 230 

Shot the last shaft of light of love at you 
Hurtled in total darkness hereabout ; 
And time for them when whirling down in night. 
There in your palace was a comedy ; 
Here in their hovel was a tragedy ; 
There, ladies for the eyes too fine to touch, 
Esquires genteel and titled merrymen. 



Act II PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 41 

The dance as if the Hghts went round, as if 

The merry merry late of paradise 

Were going to* the devil ! here — alas — -40 

Here stalked death's awful antic, making still 

A widow and an orphan ; then we three, 

We shuffled the cadaver to the ditch. 

Two mourners for the dead and one for them. 

Your Highness, O Your Highness, how can you 

Whose summer heart out in the winter's cold 

Made snowflakes turn to manna for the poor 

Reject them now from private enmity ? 

You never toiled, can nod for luxuries ; 

They, all their wretched lives ; and that to starve ? -3° 

Do, you ! assist them ; I implore you, do ! — 

Well, I shall pawn my clothes and go in rags. 

Adel. You have been out all night — let me dis- 
mount- — 
For your mustache is rusty. Help me down. 

[Dismounts. 

Enter Archduke Ranieri mid the Duke of Modena 
zuith Guards zi'/io arrest Vittorio Emanuele. 

Ran. You stand arrested for lese-majesty. 
Mod. Conspiracy ! whose punishment is death. 

[They lead Vit. Em. aside. 

Enter Pantaleon imitating harking. 

Adel. Here comes that dog. 

Pan. [Barking] Then here's dog happiness. 

Adel. Bark till the cow-bells tinkle. [Whips him. 

Pan. I shall sue 

For breach of promise. 

Adel. Bark till the four bells on the steeple crack. 260 

[Whips him, 
Pan. [Sings. 

When radishes in dishes grotv. 

And turnips zvhen they turn up, 
The saints zvill soar up from below, 
The devils they zvill burn up. 



42 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act II 

A del. Your waggery is like a spear of hay 
Big-headed, but it breaks. Bark evermore. 

[Whips him -while he harks loudly, then faintly,, 
then lies dozvn. 
Thus I have written down, It is a pity 
That fools are melancholy zvhen not zvitty; 
For, having been the very cord of laughter, 
Remembering they zvere apish galls them after. ^^o 

What do you mean ? 

Pan. The Earl of Inverness. — 

I saw a multitude of peasants, armed. 
As I ascended by the mountainside. 

Mod. Such tardy information merits stripes. 

Ran. Which way advancing ? 

Pan. This wav- 

Cal. ' Let us fly ! 

Mod. The fool is neither true nor politic. 

Ran. You have been still a trouble, Adelaide ; 
To Innsbruck you must hurry in a trice. 

Add. I do not love the artificial city. 
The cities are as lonesome as graveyards ^^"^ 

Where man to man is strange. 

Ran. These latter days 

Clearings in forests are too populous. 
Of traitors full, concerned in treachery, 
Where too much confidence is none at all. 

Ad el. The most exemplary of city folk 
Are villains in the country, being known. 

Ran. You whom the catcalls, rebel, spy, condemn, 
What words can ransom you ? 

Vit. Em. Not words but deeds; 

The Garibaldians, the Piedmontese, 
The patriots of Modena, Tuscany, -90 

Romagna, Parma ; sixty thousand strong ! 
Your Highness is surrounded, join with us. 
The form ordained to this peninsula. 
With aromatic zephyrs to the sun ; 
The universal language beautiful ; 
The national renown of ancient arts, 
Of music, painting, and sweet poetry ; 
The gods' own glory of an age bygone ; ■■ 



Act II PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 43 

Religion — dictate unity ; amen ! 

All Italy implores ; for God's sake, help ! 3°"* 

Ran. Easy the thought but difficult the deed. 

Vit. Em. Italian men are many in your guard. 

Ran. If I were traitor, too, I might reply. 

Mod. A gallows to his rescue quick ! — but no ; 
Pointblank this exigency speed the shot. 
Knave, we that govern by divine acclaim 
Wotdd make a desert first of Italy. 

Vit. Em. The desolated fields, the squalid towns, 
The falling walls, the crumbling palaces, 
Are monuments and sad memorials ^^° 

Of spoliation and the nightmare war. 
Magnificent ! this ruin Italy ! 
Out of the fire of ancient glory life 
Has risen from that ruin phenix-like, 
To elevate her streamers in the sky, 
Or blaze aloft in liberty and die. 

Ran. This parley is prorogued. 

Mod. [To guards] Be done with him. 

P^it. Em. Hold ! I can put such reasons in the air, 
Above the common cry, why you should not. — 

A del. Since he is party to the rebels rife, --■' 

xA.nd could betray them all in my behalf. 
Postpone his execution for awhile. 
And let him swear allegiance true to me. 

Ran. I thank thee, child, for this expedient. 

Mod. To put a basket underneath the spout. — 

Adel. Swear, will you follow me? 

Vit. Em. Ay, to the grave. 

My life I owe you ; when the debt is due. — 

Cal. Beware, he follows Cupid's compass still. 

Adel. Look; this pilgarlick, this same mountebank, 
This kitchen errand-boy — he loves me, he ! 330 

He loves me well ! Now, welladay, what luck 
That this rank sickleman, this scallawag, 
Desires the granchild of an emperor ! 
No more of pretty princes of the blood. 
So that the newsboys, picnic-faced, may shout 
In madding exultation, Lo, this lout! 



44 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act II 

Vit. Em. [To Ran.] By the first innocence of that 
bright soul 
Of the adoring star of Bethlehem 
I swear to you, sir — and to you whose face 
I wept to turn away from — to address 340 

Your Highness in this fit of love no more 
(Unless I were a king, of Piedmont, say) 
No, not if you petition with your own 
Sweet lips; so I await the judgment-day. 
Pray, pity the affliction of this oath 
Renewed as oft as can be thought upon, 
That I shall never break, so help me God ; 
But being broken pity fly away 
And perjury as often be accursed. 

Ran. I do believe you. Take good care of her. 35^ 

[Gives Vit. Em. a pistol. 

Add. Shall I take sanctuary here awhile? 

Ran. This portion of my escort keep with you 
While I go reconnoitre with the rest. 

[Exit zvith part of the Guards. 

Adel. A goose. [To Vit. Em. 

Lau. Say gander and be dignified. 

Adel. Lives you have read of men of genius, 
And taken on peculiarities 
To draw comparisons between yourselves ; 
And in anticipation of renown 
A right to eccentricities usurp. 

Far better be a man of common sense -^^ 

Than famed a witless genius like you. 

Vit. Em. Your Highness, better to be shot ; proceed. 

Adel. At thirty paces ? twenty, say ? or ten ? 
Whichever you prefer. 

Mod. Guards, measure ten. 

Adel. Do soldiers envy executioners? 
You iron-hearted ruffians, begone. 
Have you the insolence to murder him ? 

Mod. Thev have their orders. — Stay ! 

Adel. ' Who rules but I? 

Vit. Em. Then life for life ! we shall not weep to part. 

[Aims at Mod. 

A del. I know you every man ; you know me too ; 370 



Act II PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 45 

Begone ! or every rascal shall be hanged. 

[Exeunt guards, muttering. 

Mod. Egg-hearted rebels ! vengeance on them all. 

[Exit. 

Cal. Let us skedaddle with the guards. 

Adel. Oh, no! 

Cal. The rebels wind along the mountains, eh ? 

Adel. How funny now, if they befriended us ! 

Cal. If ! if ! an ;/ with crooked /, Your Highness. 
To play at football with a hornet's nest, 
To twist a lion's tail, to kiss the fire — 
All this is funny ; is it politic? 

Adel. Wait till you hear the volley, feel the shot 380 
Inch-deep. Proceed ! cry courage ! pat your heart ! 
[Follows Widoiv whom she has motioned into the hut. 

Cal. Clouds, making archipelagoes in heaven. — 
You are the riddle that bewilders me. [To Adel. 

I do protest but shall as long obey 
As Italy shall rhyme with poetry. 

[Exit along the mountain. 

Lau. True lovers are the rhymes of prosy times. 

[Exit with Cal. 

Veri. My Lord, Duke, Prince, King, Emperor. — 

[To Vit. Em. 

Pan. All hail ! 

Vit. Em. I know you not. [To Veri. 

Vcri. Indeed I know you do. 

Vit. Em. Beau of the ball and courted nobleman 
That gala-evening ; carriage — 

Pan. [Walking] Ha! 

Vit. Em. Just so. 390 

When the Imperial Princesses wept well 
Not having you. — I wonder who he is. 

Veri. Oh, you remember me. 

Vit. Em. He knows me not. 

Veri. Most Gracious Duke — 

Vit. Em. He has the impudence 

To be dull in company. 

Veri. [Giving Vit. Em. a ring] This round of friend- 
ship. 
Surmounted bv an eveningf-emerald 



46 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act II 

Which lapidaries call a chrysolite, 

From the Most Royal Neapolitan. {Exit. 

Vit. Em. It brings my politesse in disrepute 
To run away from my acknowledgments. ^°° 

His Royal Highness' slave to gratitude ! — 
Still pondering novelties, Pantaleon, 
To steal an hour's attention from the gods ? 

Pan. The men are dead whose praises I desire ; 
All but Your Royal. — If obedience 
And true humility. — Then let me rob 
Demise of horror, O heroic. — 

Vit. Em. Pass. 

Pan. [Sings. 

Fools and gems and diadems, 
Pretty breeches and aJienis! 

[Exit. 

Vit. Em. More nonsense in his periwig -'"' 

Than in the belly of a pig. [Goes into the hut. 

Joan. If that was nonsense, weep at fun's expense 
And laugh the wisdom out of common sense. 

Enter the Duke of Parma mounted; Thomas Baron 
Ward, Betting and a Follower. 

Parm. No, that way ! 

Ward. This way ! 

Parm. Look 'e where she comes ! 

Parisian elegance of carriage, poise 
And equipoise ; oh, Spanish is the voice 
Of harmony ; soft, the embosomed South 
Escapes the passionate Italian mouth ! 

Ward. [Aside] If Parma should miscarry then 
shall I 
Do deeds of daring 'mong the demi-monde. 420 

Joan. Your Royal Highness ! villain ! 

Parm. Who are you 

If I am villain ? In this mirror look, 
Wanton. [Drazvs. 

Joan. If I am wanton, but for you 

Am chaste as mother-of-pearl ; I find, that love 
Beyond the thought of evil is ill-made ; 



Act II PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 47 

For, ever were there villains looking out 

Liefer to send the good a sorrowing 

Than save where they have ruined and excused. 

But I have certain proof, I know not whence. 

My Hannibal scours this vicinity, "^^o 

Hot-headed as a smoke-stack out of hell 

For my betrayer, ready to do well. [Goes info the hut. 

Parm. She threatens me. 

Ward. The Princess, look, she comes ! 

Farm. Diana Huntress raised above the knee 
Her tunic ; then, The Fair-Limbed Goddess, she ! 
Chaste because marble all these centuries. 
Venus of Melos dropped her flowing robes 
About her loins ; oh, gushing overflow 
Of fleshy life, simplicity too rich, 

Luxuriant fullness, grandeur leaning out ■^^° 

Instinct with finer movement, softness, love ! 
Venus of Melos is victorious 
Over Diana, Goddess of the Night. 
In ancient worship, now in modern art 
Illustrious rivals ! goddesses of men ! 
But nothing to the Princess Adelaide ; 
She is the grandest masterpiece of God. — 
Omniscient in the universal rage 
For beauty physical, my eyes discern 
Her replica ! a statue ! elegance ! ^so 

Softness of love in form and attitude ! 
Or do I mark her sculptural contour 
Through warp and weft by magic? See, it moves ! 

Ward. Your Royal Highness, steal Love's proselyte 
While we make entertainment for the rest. 

Bet. By what authority do we do this ? 

Parm. She has provoked us out of human patience. 
This is a world where vampires quicken still 
By sucking others' blood ; but while they sleep 
The others suck it back with interest. 460 

Ward. This largess take, Bettino, and be still. 
Now be unconquerable spirits ! men 
Like Alexander, Csesar, Jesus Christ, 
Napoleon ! 

Follozver. Hurrah ! 



48 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act II 

Farm. Too near the town. 

We chant at morning-tide, We shall do this; 
But yet at evenfall we still do that, 
Performing little as life's law allows. 
Come farther. 

Stef. Now or never ! 

Farm. Minion, die ! 

Stuff green persimmons down your puckered maws 
Till you go snarling, but come farther up. ^ro 

Ward. Oh glorious sight ! she comes ! let us with- 
draw. 

Farm. Her body's warmth is stolen by the South 
While lovers' lutes steal music from her mouth ; 
The day steals sunshine from her face ; and night 
Steals from her crescent eyes twin-planet light ; 
The angels steal ambrosia from her breast. 
The devil take her soul ! and I, the rest ! 

[Exeunt omnes except Stef. 

Re-enter Vittorio Emanuele, takes Adel.'s steed 
aside from Stef. and motions the latter away. Then 
re-enter Princess Adelaide, keeping hack the 
Widow and Joanna zvho follozv, zvith her riding- 

IV hip. 

Adel. You are to us like snakes in vinegar. 
Made horrid by a magnifying glass. 
My renegade would conjure up — what not ? -*^° 

Rats in a church to gnaw the suppliant. 

Wid. Pah ! never sling your insides out at us. 

Joan. Swallow your lucre with a gilded kiss. 

[Flings hack the money they had received. 

Wid. Oh, I could eat my lips but they are thin. 

Adel. Right ! Harpy, snap it up. 

Joan. First pick my bones ! 

Wid. We stoop to rise again. [Flings the money. 

Joan. To gutter dogs 

The bounty of your gardener was not. 
To him we owe our lives ; so great a debt 
We shall not cheapen them. 

Adel. A bas the fool ! 

He is to us as vermin are to vou. 490 



Act II PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 49 

Wid. God save him from you, such a worthy man. 

Adel. By this traducer I am scandaHzed. 

Wid. No slander ever left his honest lips. 

Joan. Except the moment he presented you. 

Adel. Oh, vinegar! with mother in it. 

Joan. Bah ! 

Wid. My God, what devil has forsaken us 
That we are blessed with your company ? 

Joan. One other wise man was there in the world 
Than Solomon ; and he, your gardener. 

Wid. If he were black I would a thousand miles soo 
Go marching to the music of a bell 
To gaze at him, unseen. 

Vit. Em. [Aside] My heart-strings catch. 

Joan. If I were empress of your Austria 
I would come crawling by to kiss him white ; 
But being white he is too fine to kiss ; 
And my betrothed Hannibal at sea 
Would hollo, good. 

Wid. Not in Cernobbio 

Is any trusted as this gardener. 

Joan. He in our troubles did invest his heart 
And all his wealth. 

Wid. That may deserve small praise; 510 

But blessings, great ! such interest we pay. 
The prayers that cannot keep up with sorrow. 
As long as life's line. 

Joan. Prayers from dying lips 

Are not entirely worthless. 

Wid. Generous man ! 

Joan. O generous man ! Oh, for a brother like ! 

Wid. My God, I could not have a son like that. 

Vit. Em. {Aside]¥ov manly pride they have no pity 
— tears ! 

Wid. He waited out my husband's history. 

Joan. The hero at my father's death-bed kept 
Vigil all night. 

Vit. Em. [Aside] I cannot breathe but weep. 520 

Wid. My husband smiled and said, God bless yon, sir; 
And so he died and said, God bless you, sir. — 
God bless him too! so I shall dying say. 
4 



50 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act II 

Joan. And God will bless him for my father's sake ! 

Adel. [^Weeping and motioning Vit. Em. fonvard] 
Your eyes receive a message from your heart. 

Vit. Em. Your generous tears, as well, run over 
smiles. 

Adel. I have a rainbow in my sight, I know. 

Vit. Em. The rainbow of good promise for a sign 
Of no more floods to overwhelm those eyes. ^29 

Adel. Inside our gentle eyes which are love's roses, 
There is not room for sympathy and tears ; 
So drops of pity fall ; they are the ottar 
Of human kindness, love's perfumery. 

Vit. Em. Down on your knees and stifle her with 
thanks ! 
I never gave you anything, but she — 
The goodness of Her Highness — long enforced. 
Against my will, my tending him that died. 

Wid. My God, we famish breathing out so much. 

Vit. Em. And how can you upbraid her? Go, buy 
food. 

Wid. [Taking the money] 

Beware, the mountain path is steep ; 540 

The devil digs his graves too deep. 
A prophecy — I told you so; 
And wisdoms oft on asses go. 

[Exeunt Wid. and Joan. 

Adel. That widow's daughter is too proud to pray; ' 
It is too beggarl}^ — so many sins. 
My face is burning as with phosphorus ; 
Say, is it red ? 

Vit. Em. Right rosy. 

Adel. Fiery ! 

As false as kisses made in broad daylight. 

Vit. Em. A false complexion under eyes so true 
Is too improbable. 

Adel. Impossible; s5o 

Such simple eyes would wash it right away. 
No doubt eavesdroppers were disposed somewhere. 
Knaves ready to exaggerate ill grace. 
That touched my heart ; my heart is swollen up. 
What do you think of me ? 



Act II PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 51 

Vit. Em. I ? Very well. 

You are an angel-blossom that will grow 
To be the fleur-de-lis of paradise. 

Adel. Who is the fairest creature in the world? 

Vit. Em. That widow's daughter is as poor as fair, 
And fit to double beauty in a glass. 560 

Adel. Who is the fairest lady ? 

Vit. Em. She is still 

One that the mirror loves. 

Adel. That loves the mirror! 

She wears a mousy mole on one bare knee ; 
I have a dimple there. 

Vit. Em. So I supposed. 

Adel. That I can prove. 

Vit. Em. I do believe it. 

Adel. Well ! 

A beggar be in doubt of royalty ? 

[When mounting she slips almost into his arms. 
Help, I have hurt my knee ; you let me fall. 
What ? am I poison ? 

Vit. Em. Most Serene, Most High 

Illustrious Princess, I have sworn an oath. — 
Would you give proof? 

Adel. Am I too, beautiful? s-o 

Vit. Em. Witch-work or miracle, you madden me — 
Time and again conjured, your mirror tells. 

Adel. The mirror is but shallow. 

Vit. Em. Look behind ; 

To know its shallowness is beautiful. 

Adel. Fair women see fate in a looking-glass. 
Mount, you. 

Vit. Em. But I would help Your Highness mount 
Toward heaven. 

Adel. Merci ! you get on behind. 

Vit. Em. Your Highness laughs at passes dan- 
gerous ; 
And revolution you put down with smiles. 
Let me escort Your Highness' steed. 

Adel. [Mounting] This beast ^So 

I give Your Lowness since you like him. Spite 
Against affection dulls its edge ere long. 



52 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act II 

You see, ingratitude capitulates. 

I have forgiven you for chiding me ; 

How dared you make a royal princess weep ? 

Vit. Em. Come Austria's debacle ; over throne 
And empire's ruin, fire and brimstone, on ! [Exeunt. 



ACT III. 

Scene. Three Forks of a Mountain Way. 

Enter the Duke of Parma^ mounted; Thomas Baron 
Ward, Bettino, and a Follower, on foot. Then 
enter Count Veri. 

Veri. Most High, Most Mighty, and Illustrious 
Prince. — 
But what is woman ? 

Farm. Woman is a toy 

Compact of devilish delights by twos ; 
Two lips with kisses, breasts with blushes, hips 
With legs. 

Ward. You are the Sultan of Turkey. 

Veri. The Duke, he of Calabria, presents 
This strap of massy gold, with emerald 
The firefly lost of eld in Hindustan. 

Farm. Ring? wring his neck'! 

Ward. His Royal Highness pines 

After the retrospection you incite. ^° 

Farm. Let him beware the sickness wittingly 
Contracted from this Princess Adelaide. 
This love is known to be a germ disease ; 
Bacteria alight from some — but few — 
As thickly as a perfume from a rose. 
These people are the propagators of it ; 
To gender it are sick uncommonly ; 
Pell-mell the lovers they inoculate. 
Now she puts love's bacilli in the air 
Infectious as a muddle in a spring. 2° 

Veri. Since you have been in love. — 

Farm. In love and out ! 

Veri. And in again. 

Farm. My sorrow's madness, man. 

Veri. It is a devilish feeling. 

Farm. Pleasant, too. 

S3 



54 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act III 

Veri. Yes, it is devilish. 

Parm. Devilish it is ! 

Veri. All friendship you deny, whose loss ere long 
You will be laying to adversity. 

Parm. Men, catch Count Veri's jewels by the legs. 

Veri. Ev'n thieves demur from robbing gracious 
men. 

Parm. What nicer is Calabria than thieves ? 
Why, I could chew at coloquintidas, 3° 

And guzzle verjuice, bite at verdigris, 
Or gobble quinine — out of bitterness. 
• Bet. Where shall we put him? 

Parm. On his wings depends 

Whether he flies to heaven or descends. 

Ward. Here comes the Princess ! 

Parm. Breathing from her eyes ! 

Veri. He sufi^ers from a monomania. 
Ho ! Highwaymen ! 

Ward. Stand in a double shadow. 

Parm. Tie up his prattle in a handkerchief. 

Bet. Your Ro)^al Highness is beside himself ; 
Your reason by your passion put to flight. 4o 

Parm. This emerald, whose lightning strike you blind 
As ever is the hap of serpents, take. 

Ward. No halting for consideration now ; 
To the declivity ! 

Bet. Away with him ! 

Parm. Henceforth forever passion move the world ! 
Till ruin threatening the human race 
Shall make some holy anchorets apace ! 

[Exetmt Bet. and the follozver zvith Veri. 

Ward. Like in a dump-cart, as a thoroughbred 
Your Royal Highness ne'er had leave to run ! [Exit. 

Parm. Love is the word ! O Lady Fortunate, so 

Fairer than sunshine, sweeter ! challenge all 
The nymphs of Italy to charm away 
Thy palm of beauty — with impunity ! 
For thou outshinest the nonchalant nudes 
Of fancy's most ethereal dreams so far 
That men would hollo, Vidgar soids, pass on ! 
Behold! this is the hre to stifle mine! [Exit. 



Act III PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 55 

Enter the Duke of Calabria^ Princess Adelaide, and 
Countess Laura_, mounted; Stefano, on foot. 

Ad el. What trick with this conceited gardener? 

Lau. As nightly as a negro make his shade 
With tar ; then feather him and copper him ^° 

Like any other bloody Indian ; 
Inoculate him with the jaundice next, 
To typify an almond yellow-man ; 
And cover him with flower like a clown. 

Adel. 1 shall entice him to a bower to-night, 
Where honor cannot walk so crookedly ; 
And have men make him a chameleon. 

Law. Humph ! 

Adel. Let us sit in the luxurious shade 

Of chestnut trees all afternoon ; and see, 
Leaning the most to breezes they love best, 7o 

The winged yachts like water-birds pass by. 

[Dismounts and has Stef. lead her horse aside. 

Cal. An hour ago a cloudless sky ; but look. 
Creations of the fairy mapmakers ! 
Now all the misty heav'ns foreshadow rain. 

Adel. Let heaven's raven top grow bald again. 

Cal. You think I fear the rebels. I ! I wish 
I had a hundred to my single hand. 

Enter Pantaleon. 

Pan. [Plays a stringed instrument and sings. 

Adorning trees, by ttvos and threes, 
They hang the nobles up to ease. 

Cal. To dance on dynamite, to stroke a tiger — s° 

Adel. The rebels will not find us, possibly. 

Cal. To go in bathing with a crocodile. 
To scratch a mad dog's nose — is possible ! 

Adel. You are the Prince of Promise in your land. 
That people wish fulfilled ; but once show fear, 
They know the promise broke. 

Cal. To hospice ! 

Adel. _ Go. 

Cal. Contagious madness leads me on and on. 



S6 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act III 

Grant but the tip end of your hallux nail 
To set in gold around a diamond ; 

So make my coat of arms a crescent moon, 9o 

And, me turn Turk adoring. 
Adel. Jump. 

[To Pan. who stands before seven stone steps. 
Pan. Highness, when the Earl of Inverness — 

Adel. Well, jump! [Whips him. 

Pan. I say the Earl of Inverness. — 

Adel. Why do you tremble, fat boy? 
Pan. The devil's daughter 's at boy. 

[Jumps to the seventh step btU falls backwards. 
Adel. Bound higher, there ; leap upward, fly away ! 
[Whips Pan. He jumps to the sixth step but 
falls backwards. 
Lau. Beware, I think his august master comes. 
Adel. Jump till your ears crack. [Whips him. 

Pan. Crack me nevermore. 

[Jumps to the fifth step but falls backivards. 
Adel. The Earl of Inverness ? he fall in love? 
You came to praise his level-headedness. ^°'' 

Pan. [Sings. 

His head it is a tripe head, 

And beveled like a board; 
A p arall el o piped 

As hollow as a gourd. 

Lau. Sing out another verse. 

Adel. [Whipping him] Spring! 

Pan. Hallelujah! 

[Jumps to the fourth step but falls backwards. 
Adel. Oh, he is like a low comedian 
That carries all his actions to excess 
For fear the people will believe in them. 
I knew an actor who became so great 
He acted for applause ; that ruined him. "° 

Pan. [Sings. 

Brave man! hoiv dare he addle 

On such a little leg? 
Thank heaven ! toivard the middle 
He fattens like an egg. 



Act III PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 57 

Lau. Better and better. 

Adel. {Whipping him] Up! [Pan. jumps 

to the third step and falls backzvards.] Ascend again! 
Lau. Your Highness ! look ! 

Pan. I have the heart-disease. 

Adel. The heart-disease ? [Whips him. 

Pan. Hosanna ! 

Adel. To the highest 1 

[Pan. jumps to the second step but falls hackivards. 
Lau. Beware, Your Highness ! Mercy ! here he comes ! 
His august master, Earl of Inverness. 

Pan. [Sings. 

Shard for a head and heard like a thistle — '^° 

Tra-lala lah-lala lah — 
Here comes one of the people especial — 
Tra-lala lah-lala lah, 
Lah-lala lah-lala lah. 

Adel. Again ! stand straight, swell up, bend double, 
leap ! 

[Whips Pan. zvho jumps to the first step only, 
falls hackivards, and lies as if in a swoon. 
Lau. Oh, he has withered ! 

Adel. Never breathe again! 

Ride on, Your Royal Highness ; and you, too. 
Your Ladyship. His Lordship leave tO' me. 

Cal. Be thou forever worshiped as by me, 
There never will be cause to pity thee. ^3o 

[Exeunt Cal. and Laii. 

Enter the Earl of Inverness on a donkey. 

Adel. Oh, you have ventured far, brave Englishman, 
Between two armies savagely opposed. 

Inv. We bear a charmed name in Italy. — 
For what, alas, do you lie dreaming there ? 

Pan. I dreamed my salary away. 

Inv. Pooh pooh ! 

Your Highness, pardon him ; one day he barks ; 
Another, cackles, crows, grunts, hoots, or roars. 
He is a dog, cat, goat, pig, ass. But stay. 



58 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act III 

Good fairy, may I whisper in your ear ? 

Adel. If you tell dainty vagaries come near. ^^^ 

Inv. Sagacious Princess, do not be too sage. 
Less estimable though I be, it needs 
The incarnation of immortal ones 
To equal you who have no parallel. 
I am no king I know. 

Adel. A king enough ? 

hiv. I do not emulate the loftiest 
Whose ears the marvel of your beauty strikes, 
But too remotely like the fairy-tales 
That every day dull men's credulity. 

Adel. Whose fairy-tale brought you? 

Pan. Mine, Highness, mine ! ^so 

Adel. Can monsters' mouths inspire knightly quests? 

Pan. No, but they can direct one to a plague. 

Adel. True ! thinking on an Indie fairy-tale; 
The sweetest things proceed from ugliness, 
And fair are fairest by antipathies. 

Inv. When men would bless the lady they love most 
They say as fair as Adelicia, 
Fair Maid of Brabant, in the days of old ; 
As Agnes Sorel, Fairest of the Fair ; 
And fairer than Grace Darling, heroine, ^^'^ 

While rowing to the fearful crags of Fame ; 
Fairer than Jenny Lind, whose spell and song 
Move the admiring multitudes to tears ; 
Fairer than Augustina, the brave nun. 
The Maid of Saragossa — bless her heart ! 
But last the absolute superlative. 
Almost as fair as Princess Adelaide. 

Adel. Beauty is double in a looking-glass ; 
And that makes more. 

Inv. But will you have me? 

Pan. No I 

Adel. Who knows? 

Pan. [To Inv.] You are too blind to see in dreams. '7o 

Inv. He is a fool but yet a learned fool. 

Adel. Before the mastering of any tongue. 
So many foolish words must be unstrung, 
A fool the more the languages he knows. 



Act III PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 59 

When he goes by, the greater fool there goes. 
The eloquent, and linguists of the schools 
Grow into that by prattling first like fools. 
So much for fools ; how much for lovers, you ? 

Pan. Love's sighs draw down the stomach, may it 
please. 
Such vasty atmospheres the lovers sneeze ; ^^° 

Hence it must follow, as it does since Adam, 
That too much love brings on consumption, Madam. 
Inv. Your Highness is displeased. 
Adel. Indeed, Your Lordship, 

The contrary precisely. 

Inv. I shall slice 

This empty flunky into doughnuts. — Go. 

Adel. Would our betrothal solace you, My Lord? 

[ Whips Pan. as Inv. turns round. 
Inv. But will you marry me ? 

Adel. I promise you. 

Pan. [Sings. 

A devil married zvith a saint; 
But she than he less devilish ain't; 
She zvhips her devil into wits ^^° 

And gives His Majesty the mits. 

Inv. But will you keep Your Highness' promise? 

Adel. Ah? 

I71V. When shall it be ? 

Adel. Day before yesterday. 

Inv. Am I Your Highness's back number? — Go! 

[To Pan. 
You would as leave espouse a gardener. [To Adel. 

Adel. Puissant Prince, come marry me in prose. 
But come to me with lineaments like those. 

Enter Vittorio Emanuele. 

Inv. The Princess made cute eyes at him, by Jove ! 

Adel. We bought him at the show ; examine him. 
This circus orator, my Highness' fool, -°° 

He, when my tailor finishes, 
Will go in motley, wear an ass's ears, 



6o VITTORIO EMANUELB Act III 

Or bull-ring hang from his proboscis. Look ! 
I have Madame's consent to marry him. 

Inv. What name is he ? 

A del. I never asked his name; 

And never shall, for fear so commonplace 
Its mention might bring sorrow to the man. 

Vit. Em. Girl, I am better born than you. 

Adel. Prove it. 

Vit. Em. And wealthier. 

Adel. Where do you carry it? 

Vit. Em. A wealthy heart ! aristocratic soul ! 2'"* 

Inv. No fool but fool's half brother, a wise man. 

Adel. We were not born to measure wits with them. — • 
You see, the more I love your intellect 
I hate your person ; it is not so bad 
As being old ; but, fashionable youth ? 
It is abominable. 

Inv. On my face 

A thousand counts harsh fortune may bestow. 
But she shall never count me out of heart 
Till heart quits counting. 

Pan. Pity your old pup. 

Inv. It is not length, it is the breadth of life; ^^° 
'Tis mind, and measured by the area. 
You know my title is an ornament 
Bequeathed carefully two centuries. 

Adel. 1 am a plenty proud of all I have; 
And you, of all you have ; alas. My Lord, 
Our fortunes join and we would make ourselves 
So proud as to be quite unbearable. 
Thanks, since you are a scion of great kings, 
You that keep trophies old, as if to say, 
Here is the block ivhere Mary Queen of Scots ^^° 

Was commonly beheaded. 

Inv. Commonly ! 

You hurt me, noble Princess ; from that source 
I am myself descended. 

Adel. Pardon, then. 

To-night is imminent the slight new moon ; 
Over the dexter shoulder first behold ; 
That signifies good luck. [Exit. 



Act III PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 6i 

Pan. I wag my tail. 

Inv. Your name ? 

Vit. Em. You heard the ladies naming me. 

Inv. Your Christian name ? 

Vit. Em. Have you a boy to christen ? 

Inv. You are a racy fellow. 

Vit. Em. Thanks. 

Inv. And learned. 

Vit. Em. Oh, thanks. 

Inv. I know of your necessity, ^^o 

[ Gives him a purse. 

Vit. Em. And such an errand this shall go upon. — 
But if you meant to be refused you lost. 

Inv. It is a pleasure. 

Vit. Em. Very many thanks. 

Inv. You are a gentleman. 

Vit. Em. A thousand thanks. 

Inv. Upon the shoulders of my cursed churl 
Come shuffle your responsibilities. 
A fool who strikes me justly and disdains 
To rumor causes is by me esteemed ; 
But he who treats me sweetly for a wrong 
Yet deprecates it to his own dear friend ^so 

Is but a toady and blood-poisoner. 

Pan. I saved Your Lordship from this vinegar ; 
That merits a big penny ; heigh, My Lord ? 

Inv. But half a fool, too often takes the blame ; 
Fools downright are too fatuous for shame. 

Pan. Th' escape was lucky. Pickle, heigh. My Lord ? 

Inv. You wretched ass, unblushing! 

Pan. Acid wretch ! 

Is Lordship going to attempt again ? 

Inv. Oh, you eternal fool, have you no shame 
To shame so many reputable words ? ^^ 

Fool in eight languages ! delirious. 
Eternal, talkative, sly, knowing fool ! 

[Exit zvith the donkey. 

Pan. One fool's apology is — other fools, 
And so we have a brotherhood of dulls. 
It is enough. 

Vit. Em. What is, Pantaleon? 



62 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act III 

Pan. The grace of God to people earth with fools. 
The world is foolish to the four quarters 
Because of divers rich opinions rife. 
Only opinion makes a fool ; alas, 

Opinion is the foolish multitude. 270 

Not to be foolish is to be alone, 
Frequent a hermitage in some seaholm 
Whose solitary habitant is wise 
Because opinion is unanimous. 
Erring since changeable, oft erring still, 
A woman mannish big opinion is 
To prove a man a fool by force of numbers ; 
Frail, wilful, woman-like, notorious 
For blazing fools and hissing savants well. 
To know opinion wise proclaiming us, ^^° 

To call opinion fool condemning us — 
We are but twice a fool, or doubly wise ; 
And if — the fool — we fall, we fall not far ; 
Then hey for confidence and self-conceit. 
No other way to rise but rise alone. 
I was a nodding wag as wise as you ; 
I was a nine-days' wonder too ; the tenth. 
So witty I was hooted. — Many thanks ! 

[Receives money. 

Vit. Em. I learn a lesson. [Gives Pan. more money. 

Pan. Very many thanks ! 

Vit. Em. The wisest men think things most foolish, 
heigh ? 290 

These things they only think they are so wise? 

[Gives Pan. more money. 

Pan. Be anarchists together. — Thanks again. 

Vit. Em. An interesting wreck. [Gives more money. 

Pan. A thousand thanks ! 

I thrived by literature, then kept a jail. 

Vit. Em. What did you write ? 

Pan. You'll tell.' 

Vit. Em. Upon my soul ! 

Pan. Then swear a mile of colors — devil ! damn ! 

Vit. Em. What? 

Pan. Cheques, My Lord. 

Vit. Em. The prison, then, kept you. 



Act III PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 63 

Pan. It was the dirty bread and water, Lord. 
A beggar's tale is worthy beer, good Lord. 

Vit. Em. Why am I generous ? [Gives the purse. 

Pan. To get me drunk? 300 

Vit. Em. It was the double-deaHng of the brain 
Which, half suspended, carried back my hand 
Into the coffer of a better day. 

Pan. I shall attend you further in a drunk. 

Vit. Em. Slip down the valley like a hunted fox, 
And take that money to the widow's hut 
As fast as you can roll. [Raises his hand. 

Pan. Hosanna ! — Thanks. 

The widow and the widow and the widow ; 
The widow this and that, the widow's hut ; 
The widow's fiddlesticks — the widow's daughter ! 310 
A widow with a daughter I do love ; 
A widow in a tavern, I love, too ; 
But for the love of good old widowhood 
I am no widow wooer. [Exit. 

Vit. Em. Go along. 

Re-enter unobserved Princess Adelaide mounted, 
zvith Stefano leading her steed. 

Still have the nations striven from of yore 

For thy fair fields, desired Italy. 

Over the Alpine roads Alaric burst. 

Whose mighty Visigoths enslaved us first ; 

Attila with his Asiatic horde 

Of Huns scourged Italy with fire and sword ; 320 

The Vandals, Ostrogoths, and Lombards — they 

Have left historic footprints on the way ; 

How many more? the Germans, and the Franks, 

And Spaniards, all have given us blows for thanks. 

The nations go, yet Italy remains ; 

And now, the Austrians violate the plains. 

The peasant population how oppressed 

By imposts, guilds, monopolies ; debased 

To serfdom by the galling despotism 

Of Austria's detestable police. 330 

What beggary — oh, mournful nothingness ! 



64 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act III 

As I was dreaming by the waterfall 

That fans Moltrasio from cooler airs 

I saw the Roman legions pass again 

In heavy armor from the mountainside, 

Bringing ten thousand captives that breathed fast 

And panted fearfully, until the lake 

Was red with wine and then with sacrifice ; 

More marvel Italy is now enslaved ! 

What should it signify? To conjure up 340 

The spirits of the generations past ! 

For we can march determined in their tracks ! 

And strike as heavily as they ! 

A del. Could you 

Initiate me in your mysteries ? 
For you are such a good conspirator 
The longer I know you the more I hate 
My Austria and love my Italy. 
Did you ever think yourself born for a king 
From penny worries free and meditate 
Classical rule? 

Vit. Em. Worse. 

Adel. Did you have a queen? 3So 

Vit. Em. Did ever visionary crown himself 
Until a queen illumed his dreamery ? 

Adel. I am beset with suitors so, you know ; 
What suitor is most suitable for me? 

Vit. Em. The Duke of Calabria ? 

Adel. He is too little. 

Vit. Em. But he is bigger in his mirror's eye. 

Adel. Your business swims, and still you bob it up 
On others' backs. 

Vit. Em. Not with a traitorous wish 

To lift myself whose downward balance sunk 
To overturning, but I did love you — 360 

Adel. Men in the valley must climb up again. 

Vit. Em. As was by fate disclosed. 

Adel. By fate? by you ! 

Vit. Em. The wealthy breed to beauty lustily ; 
For beauty is a prostitute to wealth. 
The beautiful, from their beatitude. 
Are wooed to be the belles of misery, 



Act III PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 65 

Burnt by the cinders they themselves enflamed ; 
And so the beautiful are blessed and cursed. 
And princely weddings are for policy. 

Adei. But would you recommend your name to me ?37o 

Vit. Em. The name is in its decrement ; in me, 
The dark omikron of a waning moon. 

Adel. But love? how may one know it? 

Vit. Em. Know it thus — 

Adel. Is one aware of it? 

Vit. Em. Love is an old 

Anxiety, a yearning jealousy, 
A day-dream and a nightly vigilance, 
A hopeless famine, a poetic frenzy. 
My God — a jubilation in the blood, 
A fire and a lightning in the nerves. 
Crippling the body it illuminates. 380 

Adel. Where is it though? 

Vit. Em. It is in everything. 

Where is the genius of her we love ? 
A dryad — think — imprisoned in this oak ! 
We find a place of worship everywhere. 
Behold these roses, smell how exquisite; 
We can imagine that a human soul 
Is vanishing in perfumes out of them, 
By poorer beauties half resembling those 
Of her, beloved ; but arrest them how ? 

Adel. It is such perjury to love me still, 39° 

How shall I punish you ? 

Vit. Em. Let me be shot. 

Adel. Base blood is gilded by the flow of love. 
How, when his adoration was complete. 
He gathered bush and roses in his arms ; 
But by the scent embracing thorns, alas. 
He fell down bleeding. — Signor, you are hurt. 
Maybe the personage I could have loved 
Has lodged a thousand years in Erebus. 
But in the generations of cold time 
That we poor too^ — precisely — have been born 400 

So close apart, is it not wonderful ? 
If in remotest ages — dizzy thought ! — 
Of many million grandames, had but one 



66 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act III 

Not smiled away the blush of maidenhood ; 

Or one poor traveler not marked that smile, 

And to this other rhymed once plighted troth ; 

Had some fair maid in far-off Palestine 

Not frowned upon the forging of a birth 

Which would have killed that union's progeny ; 

Had one man's failure in primeval times, ^lo 

Of all the modern, world not changed the rhymes — 

The placing of a wound, a parted soul — 

The corn that made you might have fed a mole ! 

Vit. Em. Stand yonder in the utmost verge of heaven, 
With angels gossiping of distances. 
Then stand as far again unnumbered times, 
And other worlds behold as far again; 
More intricate the mazes of descent 
Than these infinities of time and space. 
Since destiny your constellation hung '^° 

My natal star has wobbled evermore. 

Adel. You think so much of me, I think of you 
By some mesmeric influence of love ; 
And whisper to your stars to pity you. 
So they can light by the same influence 
The soul of life inside a dying fool. 

Enter the Duke of Parma mounted; iiiwbserz'ed. 

Vit. Em. How do vou hold the Duke of Parma? 

Adel. ^ No, 

I do not hold this bearded buffalo ; 
He loves as animals — his tale is cut. 

Farm. One look at her can cure many wrongs. 430 

Adel. Hail, Royal Highness ! 

Farm. Hail, Your Sweetness, halt ! 

Your cheeks may lie in dimples like a bunch 
Of lilacs ever. 

Adel. Indeed I did not see 

Your Royal Highness. 

Farm. Would a man have sight, 

That failed to see Your Highness, by the heavens? 
You bring to eyes of saints in portraiture 
Involuntary twinkles at first sight. 



Act in PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 67 

And marbles blush with passion as you pass. 

The airy lovelinesses, atomies, 

Making perfumery sweet one by one, 140 

Have lighted on you ; now they flap their wings 

To fly to heaven with satiety. 

Now is the moment to ascend with them ; 

Beauty is made to faint and vanish. 

Add. Oh ! 

Say I have noted what was happening. 
Had I a right to whisper Heaven, nof 
For Heaven beautifies His flowers to please. 
Blame Heaven, never me. [Laughs. 

Parm. For gratitude 

Poor wayside flowers blow to heav'n bewitched ; 
And still you linger this side paradise. 450 

I cannot kill this guilty form of yours 
For beauty taking sanctuary there ; 
Oh marvel ! beauty hides so openly. [Catches her rein. 
The rebels ! they are coming, fly with me ! 
You are my wings to heaven ; think me kind. 
Much kinder than despair yet desperate. 

Re-enter the Duke of Calabria, folloived by Pan- 

TALEON. 

Cal. Shall I stick his horse in the belly ? 

Pan. Stick him there. 

Parm. Hear news from hell, that there are men in hell 
That have offended me. 

Cal. Set on your hound, 

Three-headed Cerberus from unholy land ! 460 

Briareus, giant with a hundred arms, [Beats the hushes. 
Brandish from every bush Excaliburs. 
This is a point of honor I take up 
Against the boldest ! 

Enter from the underbrush, Thomas Baron Ward, 
Betting, and a Follower, ztrho disarm Cal. Stef. 
Jwlds a pistol at Vit. Em.'s head. 

Parm. We not intend to kill, 

But being forced we shall with ready will. 



68 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act III 

Pan. My Highness, it is unbecoming you 
To fiddle much with madmen. 

Cal. So it is. — 

I told you so. [To Adel. 

Adel. Your Royal Highness, fly ! 

Think what a waste of time so soon to die. 
Aspiring gardener — poor devil — go. '^''o 

Vit. Em. One life I have, Your Highness, it is yours. 

Cal. If I embodied nothing weightier 
Than hapless Adamists, who count their time 
Of no more value than a setting hen's. 
The murder they propose would I embrace 
Out of resentment. — Till to-morrow ! then ! [Exit. 

Adel. To-morrow is too late; you coward, run ! 
As though a lover for your own dear life ! 
Would you forsake me as the soulless beasts 
Whose mothers for their young ones risk their lives ? '^ 
Your artificial dazzle blinded me. 
But through your blackness I have strained, and see ! 

Pan. [Sings. 

Shaky knees and speedy toes! 
Outcast! outcast! there he goes! 

Parin. This night shall blow us to enchanted lands ; 
And trackless out of fancy is the way. 

Adel. That is a way I am afraid to go. 
What use ? when we arrive where brutish force 
Is out of fashion I shall cry abroad 
A sound that goes with murder on the night. ^90 

Parm. But by the time the dark's black hurricane 
Has tickled the antipodes with dew 
You shall have cause to marry, when I say 
My love is lusher than a lettuce leaf. 

Adel. Love's antonym ! I would as lief be fish 
As quarter near you. I would sooner make 
My bed of swords. Before to-morrow, ere 
Vainglorious day strikes night-time's music dumb 
With harsher noises, you shall wake too wide ; 
Where ? in hell-fire ! with fiends to rake it up ! soo 

I loathe you to the brink of murder ! Death 
Shall be your waking ! At the roll-call next 



Act III PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 69 

Hell will rise up with gobbling, hearing you. 

Parm. Come now, my beautiful tragedienne, 
You cannot look as angry as you speak. 

Adei. I tell you no, and when I tell you no 
No is my answer. No, I tell you no ! 

Farm. I have Your Highness' answer in plain terms ; 
You speak love lessons in another tongue. 
Smiles, eyes, pouts, tears, these forgeries of love ^lo 
Are virtue in a woman beautiful. 
Come now ! be better married you cannot. 

Adel. When would you wed ? when wolves on poultry 
starve ! 

Pan. [Sings, 

Men zvho many for a day. — 

Follozuer., Do you see that head ? 

Pan. Eh ? What head ? 

Folloiver. What you are talking out of. A good 
thing, shove it along. Be ofif. 

[Motions as though throiving Pan.'s head. 

Pan. Head, be off. [Exit. 

Ward. I pledge myself for his fidelity. S2o 

Farm. Then have the best of fellows, whom you can — 
It is beyond your choosing — whom you must. 

Adel. A thief's recommendation? 

Parm. Beggar once, 

You relegated me to mockery. 

Adei. Among fair minds a fair apology 
Richly atones for one bad word or two- ; 
And all m}^ study shall henceforward be 
To balance insult with a compliment. 
One draught of Lethe makes the thoughts that fly 
Not to have happened, so shall all this be ; S3o 

And for a pledge of secrecy profound. 
Take two caresses and escort me home. 

Parm. What earthly satisfaction in a kiss 
That promises unkindness afterwards ? 
Must I chew salt for vengeance ? Come along. 
Beggars that steal get more than thieves that beg. 
But I am ready to cite precedents 
From myths, from legends, from true history, 



70 



VITTORIO EMANUELE Act III 



Of like designs wherewith we sympathize. 

We shall be honorably wed ; and you, S4o 

Just like a Sabine daughter of old time, 

Will love and cherish me ; and come you shall. 

Look where the moon, making the night admired, 

Rolls up the side of yonder olive tree. 

Our wedding flight over the mountain tops 

By moonlight and the winging haste of love. 

It shall begin a story without end, 

A carnival of love in Switzerland. 

Ad el. But listen half a minute. 

Parm. A sort of minute 

That wears the sweetness out of time. 

Add. Listen ! sso 

ril lash the horses o'er the cliff. 

Parm. Insane ! 

[ Ward takes the horses by the bridles. 

Adel. A truer passion than one saner makes. 
All you that are the devil's worshipers — 
Oh for a whip of scorpions on my tongue ! 
Abhorrence bait for such malignity ! 
As for the Duke of Parma, runt of men. 
When he was born the devils howled, All hail! 
Well that the days of chivalry are done. 
Or Hercules would rise in every spirit 
To stamp, for virtue, shame into your flesh. ^So 

What imprecations can condemn the tongue 
That mine be damned cursing you away ? 
Your nourishment be lepers' hands and arms ! 
And vomiting your pastime ! Oh, if hell 
Holds any creature too deformed and damned, 
May you become deformity's foul ape, 
And be a devil avoided ! 

Parm. Noises, how 

The tiny Princess throat produces them ! 
Heav'n order better music from those lips. 
What is the use to execrate a name, ^'^'^ 

Which does not have the holding of a hair ? 
You are a heaven-bussing cloud of lace ; 
You witch-work ! I could crack your ribs with this 
And pinch you with the other. 



Act III PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 71 

Ward. Might as well 

Pay flattering addresses to the gods. 

Parni. Give wholly up. 

Ad el. Better the cold embrace 

Of earth than yours ! 

Parm. I have an argument 

Of force to move those magic limbs to love. 

[Embraces her. 

Adel. Help! slave! you are so much beneath a man 
The dogs will scent you out to scowl at you. 5^" 

Vit. Em, [Shooting Stef. dead] 
There is eternal food, unsorry wretch ; 
Shall every petty villain feed on her ? 
You should have stared more steadily at me. 

[Takes up Cal.'s szvord and gives Stef.'s pistol 
. secretly to Adel. 

Farm. Whip out your sickle, we shall settle this 
By arbitration of the gods ! [Dismounts. 

Vit. Em. Come see 

The price of psalms rise on the judgment-day ! 

[Bet. and the foUoiver fight zvith Vit. Em. 

Adel. Shall common gardener exalt himself 
To murder my astonished equerry ? 

Bet. Surrender, villain ! 

Vit. Em. Infamy enough. 

Adel. If any fights for true love strike as true. S9o 
No need to kill him now about to run ; 
But if he had a sycthe. — 

Parm. What havoc then? 

Vit. Em. While in my hand I hold an inch of steel, 
And in my body any drop of blood, 
I shall adventure on the way to death. 

Adel. The blood is up! strike back, my gardener; 
Sti"ike home ! you have a chance to die for me ; 
Strike hard ! their souls are shotted down to hell ; 
Strike, while the blood is hot ! 

Vit. Em. It beats my sides. 

Adel. A fighter for his true love who shall say ^°° 
Killed by an actor's passion ? by a mere 
Mechanical rascal, mercenary coward ? 
As one would spit away a cherry-stone ? 



r2 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act III 

Many a lifetime hinges on one day ! 

Give me to say, / thank you in my tears! 

Think of some princess and a tournament ; 

And I shall stick my eyes into your blood 

At every atom like a needle point ! 

Then you struck gold. I thank you, knave, for that ; 

I did not know the fire in your veins ! ^'° 

Ward. [Behind Vit. Em., and uplifting a club] 
Until the judgment morning. 

Adel. Treachery! 

Help ! Blush as black as night ! go, treachery, 

[Shoots Ward down. 
Where fire will broil the grease from hypocrites. 

Farm. [To Bet. and the follower zvho give ground] 
Rip up his body ! where the ribs grow short ! 

[Bet. takes to Uight. 

Adel. Your lips are not for mine, but to utter despair ; 
Your time, for prison walls ; your eyes, for tears ; 
Your voice, for dirges — cursings against woe ; 
Your limbs, for palsy ; sleeps, for incubus. 

Farm. Stand up ! [To the follozver. 

Follower. Oh, I am Avounded. 

Farm. [Killing the follozver] Coward, die! 

Adel. Oh, heinous deed — poor man — enormity ! ^^° 

Vit. Em. Now fly. [To Farm. 

Adel. He ! when rhinoceros takes wing ! 

Farm. Give ground ! [Beginning to iight. 

Adel. [To Vit. Em.] Thrust in, paralysis to touch ! 

Farm. [To Adel.] I shall enfold that body in these 
irons 
So fondly I shall suck the flesh away, 
Until your soul is out, with love ; with that, 
Or with the savage clench of death ; no mean, 
For you, betwixt the compass of these arms 
And dissolution to the elements. 

Adel. Strike while his blood is going out at breath ! 
Rip him up proximally, rip him up ; ^^° 

Lop off his distal members, lop them off ; 
Sanguinolency carnify that trunk. 
And make of him deformity's foul ape 
Till Dagon at the whining torso spit ! 



Act III PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 73 

Ha ! he be ousted by an Adamist ? 

Hurrah I now murderer, you have your match ; 

Will you be amorous ? you be in love ? 

Can you and scorpions and vipers love ? 

Can snakes and bears their victims hug to death ! 

You cannibal ! 

Farm. Have mercy. 

Adei. Wolves love lambs, ^^o 

Tigers and lions love poor travelers, 
The devil loves his worshipers — for what ? 
Hell-fire ! you were born in the wrong world ; 
You should have been directly born in hell. 
Could you but get now to your paramours 
Where reeking garters make you sneeze all day. — 
Strike that the breast which carries such a weight 
Be soon abandoned ! give that body vent ; 
Vent ! vent for such a soul ! between the ribs ! 
True stroke, true lover; all the world shall know; ^so 
Good gentleman ! I thank you in my tears ; 
You hero ! 

V'it. Em. Girl, for God Almighty's sake. 
Fly! 

Adel. Better so; now I agree with you. 

[Exit. — Farm., grappling ivith Vit. Em., is 

thrown. The latter puts' his foot on 

Parni.'s neck and zvhips him with Adel.'s 

riding-zi'hip. 

Parni. Triple damnation follow you, all hell. 
The fires, the furies, vengeance evermore ! 

Vit. Em. The lash shall draw respect for beauty yet. 

Farm. Oh, kill me, kill me, this is torturing. — 
Phosphoric burnings, purgator}^, death ! 
Oh, to have lacked of executioners 
To kill a torturer that murders me. ^^° 

Slave, sleep with vipers, boil in poison ! God ! 
Your foot is strangling me. 

Vit. Em. Strangle awhile. 

Farm. Oh I am bleeding, bleeding ! 

Vit. Em. Bleed again; 

Moan till the four winds whistle, leech in love; 
Complain till hell's siroccos sympathize. 



74 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act III 

Parin. You hurt me terribly ; oh, I am sick. 
The guilty givings of indebtedness, 
The wicked whisper of necessity, 
The agonies of a despairing love, 

The envy to behold a newcomer — ^70' 

Whose fortune needs no gracing, graced — all things 
Have turned my honeyed words to hurricanes, 
All to evoke the spirit of revenge ; 
But I am sorry, sorry. 

Vit. Em. [Letting him iip] Take your hurts. 

Farm. By wolves and sharks I swear you shall atone, 

Vit. Em. Who will enforce atonement? 

Parm. I! I! I! 

Vit. Em. By cats and dogs I swear the contrary. 

Parm. A curse light here like that on Tara's halls 
Where kingly synods nevermore would sit 
So reeked the place with superstition ! 

Vit. Em. Curse ; ^so 

To help out fate go mutter like a witch 
Under the chimney, dating Heaven's grace ; 
But time is his own fortune-teller, mark. [Exit. 

Parm. Murderers ! 
The dead shall rise against their murderers ! 
And curses evermore shall fill with poison 
The universal stomach of the air ! 

Ward. Help me. Most Noble Prince, for Jesus' sake. 

Parm. Help you to hell, you stew of treachery ! 

[Kicks Ward over the precipice. 
His brains are dashed. ^^°' 

Hello ! I charge you, Thomas Baron Ward, 
Speak ! — Habit cannot make him speak again. 
The dead not answering, amazes us. [Exit. 



ACT IV. 

Scene. A Castle Ruin. 

Princess Adelaide in the fozver. A storm brezving. 
Enter Vittorio Emanuele in the moat. 

Vit. Em. Queen of the mists of angels sweet, look 
down 
And love me — all the world will love me then ; 
Not hate me that the world despise ; for thou 
Art all the world. Look down and murder me ; 
For face to face with angels, mortals die. 

Adel. What sound is that? 

Vit. Em. It is the thunder's roll 

Foreboding war in heaven ; look away, 
The smoke of battle gathers overhead. 

[Enters the castle. Adel. zvithdrazvs. 

A violent thunder-storm. Enter the Duke of Parma 
and Betting in the moat. 

Farm. Lightnings and cataclysms in the orb 
Of heav'n compounded for catastrophe ! — ^° 

Oh, pent-up patience ! — from disruption spout 
Gall ! like the Duke of Parma. Woe is me ! 
Ev'n the terrific moon with frenzy sick, 
Through the loud darkness most unbearable, 
Belated hurtles like a hurricane 
So we can hear it though we see it not. 

Bet. The moon has not been seen for all this month, 
Nor will the next, nor evermore will be 
Through the rank blackness of this sacrilege. 

Farm. Now hate, now passion, now the sense of loss,^° 
And now chagrin is bleeding me to death. 

Bet. The heat is heavy, you can hardly breathe. 

Farm. Hale to the onset once again ! 

Bet. " If five 

Could not arrest disaster how can two ? 

75 



76 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act IV 

Farm. Go like a lightning to the scattered few 
Still superstitious in their loyalty, 
And charge them on the imminence of death 
To follow here. 

Bet. By what authority ? 

Farm. Parma is lost, and Princess Adelaide 
Is lost, and Thomas Baron Ward is dead. ^° 

Bet. What profit? 

Farm. Outcast ! ' Who am I ? Am I ? — 

I am the Duke of Parma ! I shall make 
That nomen to false bloods so ominous 
The red-hot corpuscles shall burn to ash, 
Pallor succeeding shame. — You know too much. 

[Drazvs. 

Bet. The corpuscles Avithin my blood turn round. 

Farm. Where is Count Veri ? 

Bet. Merciful. — 

Farm. You shake. 

Bet. Between that flash of gold and collied cloud 
Behold the new and ill-betiding moon 
Over the left, the shoulder sinister; 40 

That member taking with quick chills and cramps. 

Farm. The murderer thinks every knot an eye. 

Bet. We lay our consciences on spirits' eyes. 

Farm. Allegiance ! by Almighty God. 

Bet. I swear. 

Look, look ! the moon shot like a meteor ! [Exit. 

Farm. Now on the gloomy roll of heaven's wrack 
God's pitchfork pen writes tragedies in fire. [Lightning. 
What ? brooding vengeance, Thomas Baron Ward ? 
I doubt if through the death of life we meet. 

[Enters the castle. 

Re-enter Vittorio Emanuele and Princess Ade- 
laide in the tozver. The storm continues. 

A del. The death of three to-day? — What voice was 
that? ' so 

Vi't. Em. I heard none dreader than Your Highness' 
own. — 
The death of four, Your Highness — one to be. 



Act IV PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 77 

Adel. The lightnings flashing in the darkness — look ! 
Make sudden day and night successively. 
Sit down Your Highness— close. 

Vit. Em. Three dazzling strokes 

Of lightning startle you. 

Adel. Oh, no, no, no. 

How did you leave His Royal Highness there ? 

Vit. Em. He grappled me, but falling under foot 
Received some blisters from your riding-whip ; 
Yet leaped he like Antaeus from the ground ; ^° 

And while his lungs, still lolling in his throat, 
Put curses in the air, I came away. 

Adel. The felon Duke of Parma ! Draw! 

Vit. Em. [Drawing^ Beware! 

The way is narrow here, and dangerous ! — 
It was the lightning's gabble ; nothing fear. 

Adel. It was the devil's avatar, the Duke. — 
Ah well, no human hubbub frightens me 
(With you before me thrusting I would fight 
A ducal army), but when heaven burns 
Oh, what salvation earth, between two fires? 70 

Then mercy.— You are not the only one 
Who risked his life for me ; the others died. 
I am too ugly to be loved so well. 

Vit. Em. They were not blind ; but God is deaf and 
Wind, 
Or he would have you walk in paradise 
And talk with cherubs if he saw or heard. 

Adel. Then I had best be shy about a church. 
Alas, supposing He should see me here ? 
What peals of thunder shake the castle down ! 
God is so great the heathen make of Him ^^ 

A thousand gods — that would be perilous. 

Vit. Em. Give me your hand. 

Adel. In marriage? 

Vit. Em. No, to kiss. 

To cauterize my lips. 

Adel. Tobiteitofif! 

Vit. Em. This is not woman's hand. 

Adel. It is not man's ? 

Vit. Em. No mortal hand was ever like it. 



78 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act IV 

Adel. Oh ! 

Vit. Em. When Eve was young her alabaster arm 
And marble hand, which held the apple out 
And tempted Adam from his paradise, 
Were wondrous fair, no doubt ; Penelope, 
Whose hand undid at night the tapestry ^o 

That still she wove against her wedding-day, 
Held many a prince in leash for punishment ; 
And with a hand of touching loveliness 
Young Hero, Venus' priestess, in her tower 
Lighted Leander to his watery grave. 

Adel. The hand of Laura, screening one fair eye, 
vSlipped off the famous glove that Petrarch stole ; 
It was a hand that never he might hold, 
Who bade the river run to kiss her feet. 

Vit. Em. Come all these hands, and Beatrice's hand ^°° 
That led her Dante into paradise. 
Yet never woman's hand could equal this — 
Not Miriam's hand again, the hand that rocked 
Her brother, infant Moses, in the flags ; 
And over the Red Sea with timbrels light 
All Israel's daughters led a triumphing. 
Alas ; Your Highness, this is angel's hand. 

Adel. You love my Highness, do you love myself? 
Here is the mount of Venus ; here, of Mars ; 
Now which do you believe predominates ? "° 

Vit. Em. Saint Agnes' hands ! two miracles in flesh 
wShe clasped in sculptural beauty on her breast ; 
And one she moved to make the sign of the cross 
Before false idols, going to her death ; 
And one, toward heaven ; and was crucified. 

Adel. I read the story of Charlotte Corday, 
Who, with a hand no fairer sung than mine. 
Struck deep for France ; and after she was dead, 
Inspired two youths to die of pure love. 
But of all women, I should rather be ^^° 

Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans, 
Who, toward the south of that beleaguered town 
When she was wounded, wept some woman's tears ; 
Yet, with that hand I wish were mine she seized 
A standard and went forth to victory. 



Act IV PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 79 

Vit. Em. Base were the cowards that forsook her ! — 
As when 
The hand of Deborah, the prophetess, 
Down from Mount Tabor waved the vaHant few 
Against the mighty hosts of Canaanites, 
Point me out greater dangers till I die ! '30 

Adel. Could you accommodate me with a kiss? 

Vit. Em. My pleading banter ; but reward it not ; 
Such counter-feelings muddle up the pit 
And pointel of my heart, flushing my eyes. 

Adel. Oh, ox in love! — Hands in the pockets, there; 
It is such perjury to love me still. 

Vit. Em. Oh, we are weak enough before we add 
To our infirmities forbidden oaths, 
In single mightiness defying God, 

Making familiar with divinity. ^40 

The boast of excellence loses itself 
When only resolution wins the day. 

Adel. This eye is black; what is your other? Ah, 
The other, stormy black — a red and black. 
Your either eye drips like a watercress. 
And lips look esculent enough to kiss. 
How would it be ? delectable ? Kiss me — 
If I say, Kiss me. 

Vit. Em. Do not dare to touch me. 

Adel. Come near. 

Vit. Em. But now I shall respect my oath 

Which I shall only gain the sin to break. ^so 

Beyond my touch is out of my blind sight. 

Adel. I blindfold you to keep you from a lie. 

[Blindfolds him. 

Vit. Em. The Duke of Parma. — Keep a daylight eye 
For passes in the dusk. 

Adel. A marvel how 

The rusty garden sickle parries them ; 
My brave, my noble, excellent, kind man ! 

[Touches her cheek against his. 

Vit. Em. What flame was that whose scorching 
breath darted 
Across mv neck ? 



/ 



8o VITTORIO EMANUELE Act IV 

Adel. {Kneeling between his feet] A lightning in the 
night. 
Oh, pitapat, I hear your heart go thump — 
Abracadabra — like a windmill pump ; ^^°- 

And oh, your cheeks, they have turned fiery red 
Till every pinching leaves a finger-mark. 

Vit. Em. Touch not a madman. 

Adel. You are feverish. 

Vit. Em. Ah, by the heart of Heaven's King I love 
you. 
Although you tiptoe over me all day. 

Adel. [Removing the blindfold and looking up] 
You see — what do you see inside my eyes ? 

Vit. Em. Myself, sweet saint. 

Adel. Look deeper ; see ! my souL 

Vit. Em. My soul, dear saint. 

Adel. Love is a wondrous things 

Beloved. 

Vit. Em. Mockery, a madding thing. 

Adel. Lord, after I had blessed you half an hour ^^o 
I threw a blessing from my lips to yours ; 
We could not kiss good-by, I kissed my hands. 
Your lips look lonesome, here is company. 

{Kisses him, then hides her face, 

Vit. Em. O Princess, darling, you have made me mad 
To love beyond the compass of sane minds. 
The coming and the going of my blood 
Is a continuous bleeding in my veins. 

Adel. If I must love you I must love right well. 

Vit. Em. Oh, love me more than poison can love 
death. {They embrace. 

Adel. Yes, yes, say on. 

Vit. Em. If all I ever thought, ^^<* 

And all I think, and all I ever shall. 
As written on my inmost soul, lay bare, 
Then you would find love-passages so far 
Beyond the touch of dedicated art 
That you would choke to turn the pages o'er. 

Adel. Come to my vestal sanctuary soon, 
And I, fair Rosamond — ask as you will — 
Shall sooner shed with you now and again 



Act IV PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 8j- 

Some tears to lay the dust of your despair 

Than see you breathe these suffocating sighs. ^90 

Lay down your bloody sword between us two, 

And in this tower we shall sleep to-night 

As in the legends of knight-errantry. 

Vif. Em. All day, all night, forever roll 
Through me the music of thy soul. 

Adel. I'll meet you in the bower of blisses 
Where we shall slumber between kisses, 
And to each other's voices hark. 
For love is loveliest in the dark. 

Enter in the moat Archduke Ranieri^ the Duke of 
Calabria, Duke of Modena, Earl of Inverness, 
Countess Laura, and Austrian Guards ; then they 
enter the castle. 

Vit. Em. Presto ! the elements have taken breath. ^°° 

Adel. The spring has come, there is a rainbow, there ; 
Look quickly — look ! It fades and disappears. — 
Woe ! here they come ! that ever I was born ! 
My father and my kinsfolk, all the world ; 
Oh, yes, an itching pickle I am in ! 
You noted their approach, but I could not ; 
And so to make me one with littleness, 
Why, therefore, you contaminated me. 

Vit. Em. God bless you, to enlarge Your Highness' 
worth 
And make myself supremely less than naught ^^° 

I shall pretend that I assaulted you, 
Arouse suspicion by concealment here, 
And look to make amends with all my life. 

[Ascends the tozver. 

Adel. Fool to believe that I would humbly melt, 
Instinct with pity for a warmish breath ; 
This I shall howl abroad ; deny one word. 
Mine is the weightier in Lombardy. 
Shame hide you ! better herald Mercury 
Lend winged heels to your lack-courage hence. 
Or you shall suffer for this impudence. — ,^^° 

Help! ho! [Exit: 

6 



82 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act IV 

Re-enter the Duke of Parma in the moat. 

Parm. This gardener is neuter gender, true ; 
Adonis was a eunuch if sweet Venus 
Was half so lavish as this princess here. 
An animal was swimming in her blood. 
Ha ! Venus' baby treading on her toes 
Has hugged her calf and kissed her round the knees, 
Has filled her breasts to bursting, and has tipped 
Her nipples with a pollen of red love. 
And from one wrist to other drawn a kiss, ^3° 

And poured a burning philter down her throat, 
And put a quart of marrow in her back, 
Swum in her blood, and tickled her all day, 
While she has smacked the cheek of Cupid's thigh. 
What need of convoy for a wanton — faugh ! — 
Who finds a pleasure in chance violence. 
Fum ! I shall stand above when they pass by, 
And hurtle, overhead, the mountain tops. 

[Exit. 

Enter Pantaleon from the stairs which Vit. Em. as- 
cended. 

Pan. [Drinks and sings. 

The devil got drunk 
And, ki-plank-ki-ti-pliink ! 
He tumbled right down on the level; 
And the devil he lay 
For the devil a stay, 
Then the devil he raised the devil. 

He turned inside out, 

And his foot came out 
'Twixt his lips one pale one ruddy; 

He reached for his hair 

But his mouth zvas there. 
And never a hone in his body. ^^° 

Shouts. Tar and feather him ! Lynch him ! Hang 
him ! Crucify him ! Behead him ! 



Act IV PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 83 

Re-enter the tozver Princess Adelaide, zvith Arch- 
duke Ranieri, the Duke of Calabria,, Duke of 
MoDENA, Earl of Inverness, Countess Laura, and 
Guards. 

Adel. Does he deny it ? 

Mod. Where's that traitor gone? 

Pan. That individual ? he is my friend. 
Mod. Tell or be hanged instead. 
Pan. He is my friend. 

Mod. Hang up the dog. 

Adel. What ? murder him ? 

Pan. I'll tell. 

Inv. I shall arouse the people. [Exit. 

[They place a plank across the moat. 
Pan. Scaffold, heigh ? 

[Drinks and sings. 
Oh heav'n is high 

And Hades low. 
How can I die? ^^° 

Too far to go. — Oh. 

Mod. Beware. 

Pan. I'll tell. [Drinks and sings. 

I shall not hop 

To heaven f no! 
When I can drop, 
Just drop to — oh. — Oh. 

What shall I w^hisper to the devils, your friends ? 

Mod. Guards, hang him up. 

Cal. He coughs. 

Mod. Now let him dangle. 

Ran. Let him down. Now, speak. 

Mod. Have you not thought again ? 270 

Adel. I deemed you cowardly an hour ago. 

Pan. This difference in choosing martyrdom ; 
For nothing — something. Brothers — [Drinks. 

To tickle my imagination ! 
Tame torture gagging ; pull ! 
Now here's where friendship ceases ; say I died 
Making death comical. [Drinks. 



84 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act l'^ 

Re-enter Vittorio Emanuele. 

Vit. Em. Try as you may 

You cannot make death comical. — Leave off ! 

Pan. I suffered from a royal highness, Lord. ^79 

Shouts. Spy ! spy ! rake ! brute ! Hang the spy ! 
Strangle the brute ! Murder the rake ! Pinch him ! 
Gag him ! Pike him ! Burn him ! 

Mod. There ! loop the rope around his neck midway 
And pull at either end a tug of war. 

Cat. Let go my ear ! 

Mod. Pull fast ! and let him writhe ! 

Pan. My masters, we make felons of ourselves. 

Mod. Pull ! let him wriggle ! pull ! 

Cal. Oh, wicked he ! 

Adel. Now, God forgive me, you are strangling him ! 
Help ! mercy ! murder ! — Oh, woe, woe, woe, woe ! ^^ 

Re-enter, in the moat, the Earl of Inverness, ivith a 
Rabble; then all enter the castle. 

Shouts. Pantaleon! good man! — Gardener! O gen- 
erous man ! God bless him ! Down with the noble- 
men ! Kill the Austrians ! Set all their villas afire ! 

Adel. Grow white! [Strikes Cal. 

Cal. Oh, my backbone is broken! 

Adel. [Striking Mod.] Hold! 

Go find your breath ! — Fanatics ! murderers ! 

[Strikes others. 
Ambitious zealots ! Stop, undo the rope ! 
Barbarians ! outlaws ! Block the entrance there ! 

[The guards retire to hold hack the people. 
You did not hear me? when I tell you, stop, 
Then stop. Untie the rope. — Speak for yourself. 

[To Vit. Em. 
Speak out, say everything ; speak, I am dumb. 

Pan. The Princess call to witness first herself. 3oo 

Adel. Why, then, I say. — 

Vit. Em. Call not angels to witness ; 

For perjury is odious enough 
In sight of renegades and fabulists ; 



Act IV PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 85 

And, though to be forsworn and think on it, 
Is retribution plenty, do your wills. 

Mod. Disclose your partners in conspiracy ; 
Or, torture first, and hanging afterwards. 

Vit. Em. The Princes having fled, whose tyranny 
Oppressed the Duchies, the Grand Duchy, and 
The States Pontifical— my Piedmont sends 310 

To Parma and Modena, Farini ; 
D'Azeglio to Romagna ; Ricasoli, 
The Iron Baron he, to Tuscany ; 
Men to administer these provinces. 
And Piedmont's thousands are three score and ten 
That brandish in the face of Austria 
The white cross of Savoy. From Tuscany 
General Ulloa and eight thousand more 
March northward to the Quadrilateral. 
Ev'n from the utmost of King Bomba's rule 320 

Come regiments in dudgeon. Batteries — 
Battalions with field-cannon and siege-guns — 
Do target-practice at the Austrians. 
The winged lion of Saint Mark's is up ; 
The tocsin sounds, the hurly-burly grows ; 
With pistols, sabres, at their girdles, monks ; 
Volunteers and regulars, fire-eaters all. 
An aggregate of ninety thousand men. 
All these are trusty vassals to my hope, 
Who echo. Out ivith the barbarians ! 330 

Ran. God put a witness, proof in guilty mouths 
Above the stand of angels. Confidence, 
How violated ! in my house a rake ; 
A serpent in my empire! Faith be false. 
And promises like schoolboys' marbles roll ; 
The human mind is like a palimpsest 
Whose value is not truly manifest 
Till. we can read beneath. — Conspirator, 
The law must wrap its arm around your neck. 

Adel. Speak, I implore you. 

Ran. Have your latest say. 340 

Vit. Em. [To Adel.] If you are angry to be loved, 
adored, 
Be most with me. I loved Your Highness well — 



86 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act IV 

I need not to deny — it was too true — 

You know it anyway — I did love you ; 

And I do love you, for I swore at first 

To love you still through all vicissitudes. 

Ten times the earth has wandered round the world, 

Ten misty years a heathen I have been, 

For ninety thousand hours, all that time ; 

And all my travelings on earth have been 3So 

Like the unbalanced walking in a dream ; 

No hour, not any hour, not one moment 

But you were in my mind the burning star : 

Often I bit the dust, where you had stood, 

To smother choking ; at the garden side 

I planted in your footprints flowers that grew 

The most luxuriant of all by me, 

So you might look behind on flowers alone ; 

No hour of application — in pursuit 

Pale learning's wolfish haste from this to that, 360 

For fear that you might speak in tongues divine 

Could never teach me languages enough 

To tell your phantom half love's eloquence; 

No hour of sleep — a hundred times a night 

Scouring the orchard vale of Avalon, 

I sang to you almighty words asleep. 

In languages I cannot use awake. 

The words I breathed to you and your replies 

Being scribbled o'er the brink of paradise ; 

That wondrous vintage there I dared not kiss 370 

Made me intoxicated when you drank ; — 

In all the interval from then till now. 

All night among the phantoms of my brain. 

All day within the mirror of my mind 

Where you had peeped, hovered your image still ; 

Still down the mescal vista of my sight 

You trailed in a miraculous mirage; 

Ever your fairy figure faded out 

Like perfect snow and hallowed as a ghost. 

And shall not I love's chief est martyr be ? 380 

Here is a token I received from you 

So early you remember it no more; 

Take it. Your Highness, faulty answers null 



Act IV PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 87 

Figures of lifelong solving, flashes of light 

Ruin temples ages building. Fare you well. 

When long these frowning noblemen have done 

Whose countenances seem unanimous 

To spirit me to heav'n, remember me — 

That time shall come when you may better like 

The name that you shall know — remember me ; 390 

And think how one poor gardener implored 

That you be saint-like as you do appear. 

You look as I have hoped the angels look ; 

Look up to heav'n — now angels envy you, 

Thinking you are a spirit like themselves — 

You do look like an angel. Kill me now. 

Mod. Come, readjust the rope and hang him up ! 

Pan. Never mind, Lord, I used to sleep that way. 

Cal. My. foot is tangled in the cord, forbear. 

Mod. On with the sport ! 400 

Adel. From your tribunal I appeal to God ; 
From God to his people ! Belch, you gaping mouths 
Till you are empty ! indignation burst ! 
And Heav'n affright ! He is as brave, as guiltless, 
As I am guilty ; save ! — Fly ! fly away ! [ To Vit. Em. 
{An uproar. Adel. pushes a guard into the 
moat. Vit. Em. escapes across the plank. 
But where — away? [Blocks the passage. 

Vit. Em. What other world exists ? 

Mark my direction only and behold 
More than I can. 

Adel. [Throzving his szvord across the moat] 

You would defend me, sir. 
H you with low lamenting fill the air 
And lose the time in wild imagining, 410 

Before you wander distant think of me ; 
In all your aspirations, all your prayers, 
Your sleeping, dreaming, waking, think of me ; 
Behold the dawn, the noon, evening and night. 
And say she wakens, walks, dances and dreams, 
And thinks of you the livelong summer day ; 
But when the sun is lost in thunder-storms. 
Then in the flash of lightning think of me, 
And name me in the thoughts you breathe away ; 



88 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act IV 

Be melancholy and remember me, 4^° 

Imagine I am melancholy, too ; 

When you are homesick, deary, think of me ; 

No plainer words I know to guide you back. 

Vit. Em. When in my night come visionary forms 
Of God's good angels — dreams, O Princess, dreams — 
Your angel's face will be the master- face 
To millions trooping with one countenance. 
Yours, only yours, all other angels false. [Exit. 

Mod. A spy! 

Guards. A spy ! 

Ran. A criminal condemned, 

To Austria dangerous — make ready — aim. — 430 

Adel. My temples burn as though the skin peeled off, 
And not a muscle in my body's still, 
But every fiber as a felon throbs 
For him ! 

Mod. Fire! 

Adel. {Beating down the guns so that they explode 
into the moat; and still blocking the passage^ 
Swift to your flight ! the winged Pegasus, 
As when he struck with his inspired hoofs 
The fountain Hippocrene from Helicon, 
vStrike lightning ! and with you astride unseen. 
And swifter than the midnight hurricane 
Or the black shadow of the sun's eclipse, 4*° 

Evanish I like a spirit, bullet-proof ! 

Ran. That spirit pledged his body to the grave. 

[Holds Adel. back. 

Adel. Then I shall follow fast to paradise. 

Ran. The sun plays bopeep with the mountain tops. 
When shadows stretch a universal length, 
And fire-beacons light rebellion on, 
The wood is not the place for princesses. 

Adel. I have read otherwise in fairy-tales. 
Why has he made his race a mystery 
But that the muddied course of his descent 4So 

Is turned awry by some impediment ? 
Since Your Imperial Highness drove away 
My gardener, as from Beelzebub 
Now banish me. 



Act IV PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 89 

Cal. Your Highness, what abuse ! 

Women are changeable. 

Adel. The world turns round. 

Cal. As fickle as a fitful baby-cry. 

Adel. You wrote the verses ? 

Cal. Fiction, I confess. 

Adel. The only virtue in a lie is this — 
Too true it is a lie. 

Ran. Come now, my child. 

Adel. It is so long since you commanded me 460 

I have forgotten, half, how to obey. — 
He is superior by birth and book, 
By form and valor, too. 

Cal. I love you so 

1 cannot mar it with comparisons. 

Adel. Witness when Thomas Baron Ward was down, 
After Your Royal Highness slunk away. 
And some expired and others slept in blood, 
And all of them were down, o'erthrown by him ; 
Then, when the Duke of Parma shook his sword 
And, breathing frenzy at him, dashed afield, 470 

How — valiant swordsman ! glorious again ! — 
He saved me i Mars ! and oh, the difference ; 
A comet to a tadpole. 

Pan. Wiggle away. 

Cal. His hours of night are hours while you sleep. 

Adel. Oh, he is constant as the deities 
Of marble white as perfect snow. A blush 
At human doings 

Incarnadined the ichor in his veins. 
Ye Gods, what highest attributes have ye 
For his great virtues to exaggerate ? 480 

An orator ; he breathes the raw air in 
And turns out gold ! give him a cause to plead 
And he can plead divinely as of love. 
Make him a captain, or prime minister, 
Archduke, or little king. 

Shonts. Hurrah ! 

Ran. Come, come ! 

Adel. Oh, Your Imperial Highness spoilt your child 
To make her wickeder than Jezebel ; 



90 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act IV 

Why, then, coerce the Princess Adelaide 
And have a coffin for her wedding-bed. 

Ran. Become no more disgraced by gardeners. 490 

Pan. [Across the moat] Not he but she was guilty, 
Highnesses, 
This woman's doings are irregular. 
As here they sat he was distraught with love ; 
And she, as happy, would allure him 
By cobweb stairways to her bower of bliss. 

Adel. I saw affliction creeping from his eyes, 
And would have been an angel to his grief. 

Pan. She by enchantment moved her easy joints 
And dimpled arms that lazily enough 
Fanned past his mouth, with gestures ravishing, soo 

Sufficient to have turned heav'n's hierarchs, 
But never him. Your Princess is possessed ; 
Insanity is fickle, so is she; 
Ran helter-skelter like a roach insane, 
To cry about that he assaulted her. {Exit. 

Adel. My lips were frozen to my teeth. 

{A commotion among the common people. 

Mod. What's this prolonged derision of the leaves 
And fitful hissing of Plutonic snakes ? 

Ran. My children, peace ; he was abused, no doubt. 
The Princess shall atone for this — tell that — 510 

With showers of silver from her balcony. 

Shouts. Hurrah ! 

Adel. Say, do you choose to let me go, 

Or rather take the pains to murder me ? 

[Pulls loose from Ran., crosses the plank, and 
pushes it into the moat. 

Cal. Oh, teach me how to win back you again. 

Adel. Good Goddess Fortune made not me a man. 

Cal. When angels speak attending mortals die. 
Was it that incantations charmed my ears ? 
Oh, no, the siren music of your voice ! 
You could not sing ever so high in heaven 
But I would hear an angel in my dreams. S2o 

Or say, did magic fairy-lead my sight ? 
No, no, it was your beauty spellbound me ; 
I have a quarrel with sense in spite of faith ; 



Act IV PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 91 

Far better born completely deaf and blind 

Than to have seen and heard and been denied. {Faints. 

Ran. Look to the noble Prince. — Now womanhood 
Shall spread its haunting shadow over you ; 
The cares and soilures childhood's gods sustain 
On your own conscience be ; and there are some 
Who with a nun's veil seek to cover up S3o 

What death can never hide. If you should meet 
My gardener, let him escort you home ; 
Go to your mother, come no more to me. 

A del. What need a father and a husband, too? 
He is a rebel ! A more gallant man 
While fame goes round the world ahead of him 
Could never against tyranny stand up ! 
Shoot if you dare, I am a rebel, too ! 

{Exeunt severally. 



ACT V. 

Scene. A Mountain Way. 

Enter Vittorio Emanuele. 

Vit. Em. The sun is going down on all my hopes. 
If she had died she would have heard a dirge 
Ascend as long as ere I went with men. 
To-morrow I shall cry, Hail, heaven light! 
For she is still synonymous with light ; 
So shall I summon her at dayspring still, 
And yet all this will only turn to woe. 

Enter Pantaleon_, drunk; Widow, and Joanna. 

Pan. [Sings. 

A fat shave and a soup sandwich 
Make a felloiv feel outlandish. 

I remember when I was mortal once. ^° 

Joan. You are drunk now. 

Pan. Drunk yourself, you choose a gait so serpentine. 

Wid. [Pointing at a mile-stone marked P. 13] 
We by an evil-omened mile-stone live. 
Beneath whose dark thirteen the lizard creeps, 
And points a loveless finger after us. 

Vit. Em. Thirteen that made that land across the sea, 
Of lucky history ; 
Thirteen, the luckiest number of them all ! 

Pan. Sapristi ! thirteen miles to P. ? 

Vit. Em. Go along. ^° 

Pan. What right have you to interfere with me? 
What — what the devil ? What ? — From hell to bedlam I 
What are you going to do with that big head ? 

[Vit. Em. pulls off Pan.'s wig. 

Wid. Why, Hannibal ! O long-lost Hannibal ! 
Oh, happy, happy hour ! oh, now you know 

92 



Act V PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 93 

A tun of mischief lately crushed us down 
Till yonder friend. — O Hannibal, you're drunk ! 

Pan. Oh, would that I were born when Adam was. 
I'm cheated of a naughty spell of fame, 
Since dead men cannot rise to hear my name. 3° 

Joan. You, you ! of all we would have counted on. 
Whom we so many seasons sorrowed for ; 
You stood behind ; while we, your promised wife 
And mother, starved. 

Pan. O sacrilegious Eve ! 

Fudge ! keep my promised mother. Wind to burn. 

Joan. Yes, pity Adam that he liked a kiss. 
But brand flagitious Eve. 

Pan. {Giving Joan, money] Buy beer, buy beer. 
For Adam I've a rod in pickle here. 

[Sings. 
Now J shall shave my sideboards too, 

And J shall do without them ; 40 

My dear she makes so much ado 
And hullabaloo about them. 

I would not listen if she pled 
For fear the boys would hiss me; 

But I woidd shave them if she said 
She had not room to kiss me. 

■ Vit. Em. Why, here are only three of seven crowns 
Donated by the Earl of Inverness. 

Joan. O sot, O sot ! to be drunk steadies you. 
To buy this pickle you have plundered us. so 

Pan. Language ! how many mouthfuls you unlearn. 

Vit. Em. Reproof goes crooked in a drunken man. 

Pan. Three-sevenths I am honest. 

Vit. Em. Sevenths? three? 

Clown, you have saved that wit a beating-out. 

Pan. There's nothing on the mountain. Lord, to 
breathe. 
I am light-headed on the mountain height. 



/ had a mighty mustache, too; 
When I was nine years younger. 



{Sings. 



94 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act V 

/ found the longer that it grezv 

It grew a little longer. ^° 

But when I knezv my dear zuould chew 

Off more than ere I thought her, 
I knew the longer that it grezv 
It grezv a unit shorter. 

[Exit. 

Vit. Em. We on God's garden may consort no more. 
Enquire nothing ; but a long farewell, 
One that anticipates eternity. 
There will come rumors, I confess, unkind ; 
Confession more confirmed by fitting truths 
Too odious to relate. They come apace, 7o 

For I am driven by the better-fed. 

Joan. My jaws should sooner lock and rot — 
My utterances, turn to gibberish — 
Than I confess a motion of the hand. 
Stand by your honor, fight ! die ! 

Vit. Em. What dishonor 

When honor is the cue for murder. No, 
I hold it blessed to retaliate 
By suffering a wrong tO' be avenged 
By conscience ; retroaction none at all 
To bring retributor to meditate. ^ 

And that is treble vengeance ; it proclaims 
The malice fruitless, leaves the wronged free, 
And wrings the feelings of the injurer. 
Those destitute of conscience, leave to them. 
In lieu, to be repaid in their own kind. 

Joan. Your name will be the word upon our lips, 
Zeal of our prayers, our tang of memory. 
Pride of our past. 

Wid. Hark ! go apace. 

Vit. Em. Farewell. {Exit. 

Enter the Duke of Parma. 

Parm. Madam — 

Wid. Kiss madam's foot three joints farther. ^ 

Parm. Where is the Princess Adelaide? 



Act V PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 95 

Wid. We know. 

Farm. Then tell, old crone, you know me dangerous. 

Wid. Old Satan's son. 

Farm. [Drazving] The Duke of Parma, know. 

Joan. We are of temporary consequence 
That can exasperate a naughty duke. 

Farm. Consider dared threats, how dangerous. 

J'Vid. Is there sufficient blood in these cold veins 
To tempt the sword's edge? get a silver blade 
To tickle dead meat ; ha ! steel cannot find 
What the infernal fellows whisper zuitch. '°'' 

Farm. Exsuccous hag !— But lo, the prodigy ! 
Thanks, witch, whose spirit fingers point that way. 
Early a summer's morning in a dream 
I saw this vision of true loveliness 
O'ertaken by the morning. By the gods. 
No belle of Bagdad of most gorgeous time, 
Nor pearl of Persia yet who makes those eyes, 
Nor Babylonish beauty of the day 
Most wicked, never charmer of the night. 
Nor any nymph of Nineveh — not one "° 

With the seductions of them all, nor all 
The graces of the latter day, could draw 
My eyes so madly from my brain ; but she, 
The painter's phantasy, lay fainting there 
Fairer than anything immodest night 
Has shown to daylight ; and I looked again 
As when Apelles, love-sick, glanced away. 
From touching Aphrodite's rosy breasts. 
More on the panting Phryne than the work. 
And the lascivious fly went tickling on '^^ 

Over her living length ; and where he ran 
I saw a fissure in a dream of marble ; 
And then I reckoned she might squirm and wind 
The sigh of an accordion from her breasts. 
Serenely turning from her beauty-sleep. [Withdraivs. 

Enter Princess Adelaide. 

Adel. If you are candidates for Heaven's love 
Tell me what happened with my prisoner. 



96 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act V 

Joan. That you dealt nobly we professed belief. 

Wid. We know you better how you slandered us. 

Adel. You hate me more in his regard, who earns ^3» 
Love universal, than dislike of me. 
Say those were slanders only of the tongue. 
None of belief ? A summer's evening's dew 
Obscures my eyes that look the ways he flew ; 
Tell me, and I shall cease to trouble you. 

Joan. Hum ! trouble us and trouble him no more. 

Adel. As true to him as ice tO' zero I; 
You, false as the equator ! 

Farm. {Coming forward] I, to you 
As resolute as darkness to a kiss. 

Adel. What devil's perseverance in offense '4o 

Has mustered you again ? once was enough. 
If you had proved the greatness of your need 
Before you showed the vileness of your mind 
What might not oozing flattery have done ? 

Parni. The ravages your gardener might do 
In Villa Pizzo's bowers, to a duke 
Are vengeance limited. 

Adel. Vile dotard, down 

As low as limbo ! earth will sink beneath ; 
In this am I immaculate as snow 
The latest fallen out of paradise. ^so 

Farm. How well I worship you is too well known ; 
I would be guilty if I could be caught. 

Adel. We swing into the blinding shadow, night. 

Wid. Night when the ghosts stalk with a coffin smell ! 

Adel. O you whose forms in like predicament 
God moulded, too, procure some show of aid ; 
And you shall rest henceforward in the bliss 
Of palaces ; despatch ! at faster pace 
Than conscience, for the sake of womanhood. 

Wid. Night flings upon the ogres that bite off ^^° 

The overhanging arms of them abed 
A cloak that makes a rake as good as saint. 

Farm. This parley is prorogued. — Insomnia's bane^ 

{Chloroforms Adel. 
Formyl trichlorid, something for the breath. 

Adel. The air I breathe is poisoned ! 



Act V PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 9; 

Parm. Maidenhood, 

Your minutes now are numbered. 

Adel. Barbed wire 

Is better limits than your bloody arms. 

Farm. Love is the worm that wriggles in my blood. 

Adel. Defiled ? for me the smiling agony 
As the multitudes rush by me. — Angels help ! '7o 

If in the crying darkness still are ears, 
Or Heav'n has heart, compel a miracle ! 
There shall flow tears from demons, rivers, too, 
Until the damned fires weep in hell. 
Oh, pity me for my sake ! all in the world 
Alone ; oh, mercy for my sake if none 
For )^our own. • [Sleeps. 

Parm. Her angel's eyelids sleep in dew ; 

So does the outside world. \Exit, carrying Adel. 

Wid. She hated us. 

Steep her in vengeance ! 

Joan. He was just as bad. 

Wid. Yes, missy, but he let up in the midst '^° 

Once, twice, or thrice. 

Joan. A harpy ! 

Wid. Join him soon_, 

Follow like conscience racing with the moon. 

[Exeunt Wid. and Joan., follozving Parm. 

Re-enter Vittorio Emanuele. 

Vit. Em. I start as though from some forbidden 
sleep. 
As if I were a strange noctambulist 
Belated in a flower-garden still. 
But hearing her wild voice forevermore ; 
When she with lissom fingers taps me back. 
And whispers out of casement, / am faint. 
I answer on the instant, / am thine! 

Re-enter the Duke of Parma, carrying Princess Ade- 
laide, followed by the Widow and Joanna. 

Parm. Avoid me, execrable shapes ! Beware '^o 

Of curiosity. I will not live 

7 



98 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act V 

In any atmosphere apart from her 
In heaven, earth, or hell ; but still with her 
I shall be master, that or murderer. — 
- Mine ! till my day of death ! 

Vit. Em. That day has come. 

Parvi. Whose mighty tune is in the thunder now 
Surprising the predestinating Heaven ? 

Vit. Em. The Prince of Punishment in this affair. 

Farm. I know you, too ; you are a eunuch's son ; 
Hence, certainly a bastard. 

[Leaps forziwd over Adel.'s form. 

Vit. Em. By this blade ^°° 

I have seen better days and shall again. [They fight. 

Farm. Not what you seem, I know not what you are. 

Vit. Em. Vittorio Emanuele hence. 
Crown Prince of Piedmont and Sardinia ; 
And likely to be King of Italy. — 
Instantly, women, through the mountains fly 
As fast as ever witch in Italy ! 
Find Garibaldi ! call abroad for help ! 

[Exeunt Wid. and Joan. 
Now Thomas Baron Ward lies weltering, 
You, villain, shortly I shall execute. ^'° 

Farm. What do you know of Thomas Baron Ward ? 

[Recoils. 

Vit. Em. I know the Duke of Parma murdered him. 
[Leaps forivard over Adel.'s form. 

Farm. Where? 

Vit. Em. From behind. 

Farm. When ? 

Vit. Em. One hour since while yet 

The oval sun was sinking bloodily. 

Farm. Fool, swallow my defiance ! say adieu ! 

[Leaps forzvard over Adel.'s form. 

Vit. Em. Adieu ! now say adieu to heaven's light. 

Farm. Is hell so hot as hypocrites relate ? 
Then burn ! 

Vit. Em. For your reception fiends are now 

Making hell hotter. 

Farm,. Me you know too well 

To live to know me loneer. 



Act V PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 99 

Vit. Em. Hydra, yield ! ^^° 

Farm. Death to the Princess if you budge an inch ! 
Slashes and gobbets and dismemberment ! 
A sight to grind your eyes on ! [ Thrusts at Adel. 

Vit. Em. Alamort ! 

The fires of Hades are too cold for you. 

Farm. Death and the devil's inning ! I am done ! 
Dead ! all my evil habits broken off. [Falls. 

Vit. Em. The artificial lily would not wilt; [To Adel. 
The true is fragrant after death. Sweet thought, 
An airy weight, a summer's breath art thou. 
Embodiment of what I could but dream, ^3° 

Whence has thy spirit wandered ? heavenward ? 
I feel no lover's answer in thy hands. 
Or lips that under my caresses melt. 
I wonder, are thy ankles flesh and blood ? 
Unloop thy tresses, these electric silks 
Conduct a flash of lightning into me. 
Thy bosom holds a witch's heart, that beats, 
For all, such tingling music in my ear 
That I could bend to listen evermore, 
And count th' innumerable pitapats. . ^"f" 

Enter Archduke Ranieri aside. 

Ran. It is a double villainy to bruise 
The robber and appropriate the spoil ; 
Yet how much less the havoc he intends 
Than was the seeking of that libertine. [Withdraws. 

Vit. Em. How is it in paradise ? 

Adel. [Waking] What magic shock 

Across my heart-cords flashes like a shot ? 
The twinkling stars empyreal that fill 
The ether tremble at that voice's thrill. 

Vit. Em. How is it with Your Highness ? Heaven's 
pink ; 
The day is losing daylight ; come with me. -s° 

Adel. Take me along wherever you may go. 

Vit. Em. May it please Your Highness to be carried 
home? 
Night's nine degrees shall not the grass bedew 
Between the petal-sheeted couch and you. 

LofC. 



loo VITTORIO EMANUELE Act V 

A del. I heard the clash of metal overhead. 

Vit. Em. When you had breathed a thousand times 
asleep 
I thought I saw you dream. 

Adel. And only dream? 

Hist! 

Vit. Em. I have often strained my eyes of nights 
At scarecrows plotted by the mirror moon. 

Adel. What makes the dark a scarecrow? What is 
that? 260 

The treacherous Duke of Parma ! 
• Vit. Em. He is dead, 

Adel. So judgment follows mischief round the 
world. — 
I could not feel a needle in my eyes, 
Nor know them blind with blood instead of tears ; 
Thanks choking in my throat for kindnesses 
Too sacred for a golden recompense. 
I pant for breath ; my purpose was to lie, 
Long-suffering one, and swear my treachery 
Was but to prove you to the uttermost. 

Vit. Em. Heav'n's dappled dome is, on the western 
slope, 270 

First, freaked with silver light ; next, brinded gold ; 
Then burnished copper ; deeper, seas of blood. 
Now look you on the eastern mountain tops, 
Eidolons in the darkness, how upreared; 
The highest has not half an hour to go 
To penetrate the sunless cone of night ; 
For Heav'n's own painting is an unreal thing ; 
Th' Immortal Landscapist that limned it all 
Has come to draw the curtain ; if we two 
Intend to see our shadows in the Lake ^^ 

Of Como making merry, let us fly. 

Adel. When I abused and persecuted you 
You never hated me — I am ashamed — 
But unresenting, singing still my praise. 
Defending me at peril of your life. 
You have become too noble for my king. 
God pardon me ! He will, but how can you ? 

Vit. Em. O Princess, when you stood at Engelheim 
And blushed in presence of Almighty God — 



1 



Act V PRINCE OF PIEDMONT loi 

No taller than the lily standing there — 290 

I thought you blushed for my bewilderment ; 
Then truly I forgave you at first sight 
More sorceries than love and jealousy 
Could intermingle in the fairy-world. 

Adel. Ah, when were you and I at Engelheim? 
We shall be like the fairy lovers now 
That ever afterwards live happily. 

Vit. Em. Oh, you were made for love but not for me ; 
Me, but an exile of Sardinia ? 

Adel. One loyal subject sets up many a king. 300 

Vit. Em. Before one evil eye of darkness casts 
Its influence upon your wanderings 
May it please my loyal subject to return. 

Adel. I cannot love you if I do obey, 
And worse than disobedience is that. 
Let me by shrewishness not rule again, 
But all by policy ; for how can that 
In her that won true lover lose the pleading ? 
Yet, when for pity granting you are sad. 
Poor pity's echo shall abound in me 310 

Benignly canceling the imposition. 

Vit. Em. Your marriage vows make to the. capable, 
Not be forsworn as many women do. 
Intending, in the sacred ritual, 
At its sweet breathing, disobedience. 
I am morose and melancholy, mad 
At women's whims, impatient for my own ; 
An iron-handed tyrant. Do but show 
A bird in heaven, I begrudge its wings. 

Adel. Bind me with that oath that the gods do 
swear ; 320 

Take me forever. Can you love me yet 
If I am changed, transformed, translated, say? 
I shall patch up the past till I am gray. 
Better to be commanded than command 
When the disposer is less fallible 
And more in confidence than one's own self. 

Vit. Em. Consider wealth in idleness ; perforce. 
Turn out your cherished riches. 

Adel. ' Very well, 



102 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act V 

It is uncharitable keeping rich ; 

Then teach me poverty to cherish you. ' 330 

Vit. Em. Your Highness, harken, language for effect 
Gains never greater love where love is so ; 
And golden-plated promise is unkind 
At whose fulfillment I should shudder. 

Adel. Ah, 

But I shall make my promise solid gold, 
And whether with you, shall be poor enovigh. 
My golden florins are for charity ; 
My jewels to the cause of Italy! 
Love in a cottage is a splendid thing ; 
Beggar is better company than king. 340 

Vit. Em. The scalds and soilures that would maculate 
The gloves of nature blessing your two hands 
Would stigmatize degree indelibly ; 
Therefore, my proving of true love shall be 
To save your need of more anathemas. 

Adel. True loves, my master, value not degree; 
For lovers, they have castles in the air. 
I take the veil to minister to you, 
To kiss adieu to welcome you again 
Until your bones are brittle, you foredone ; ^so 

And I shall mend your clothes my burdens tore, 
Unlace the shoes my toils to sandals wore. 
And bathe your feet like Mary Magdalene 
Since only for atonement I repine. 

Vit. Em. How can you think that ever I could see 
The perfect blossom taken from these hands 
Unforced to do their offices myself? 

Add. Would you go hungry for poor Adelaide ? 

Vit. Em. I shall go hungry till the doomsday, girl. 

Adel. Hands of a hypocrite, hives ! For your sake -^s* 
My father hates me, he abjures me; 
Nobody likes me anymore, I know. 
You called me lovely ; many an ugly heiress 
Is cajoled to make faces in her glass ; 
So let these wrinkled eyelids droop in tears. 
My life and love I owe you ; pray, take both. 

Vit. Em. To you the sun kneels, and the rising moon 
Breaks forth from yonder grotesque map of clouds. 



1 



Act V PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 103 

To your father I shall go ; dragging the knee, 

My plaintive repetitions still will be, 370 

The Princess fainted on the mountainside; 

Till tears to blindness overrun his pride. 

Ad el. Death ! death ! he knows the word ! where mine 
is love. 
Let the priest marry us, confess us not ; 
When you die, I die. Listen — come away ! 
Oh, to be like the birds that sing unseen 
In the uncurling cradles of the trees. 
Glad for the leafy growth that hides their love, 
As warm as eggs in spring, to love to death. 

Vit. Em. But I remember that too-slighted oath 33o 
Wherein are coupled blasphemies with lies. 
This edge of twilight shall not ravel out 
Before I lead you home, and presently 
Go like a miner to the golden West, 
Soon to be rich or never heard of more. 
Your father's blessing is a legacy 
That I shall come triumphantly to claim. 
The separation from your noble state 
Would be a livelong sigh ; surpassing proof 
Of your affection, offering yourself. 39° 

Adel. But you were never homesick. 

PzY. Em. Yesternight, 

By that rich roadway clinging to the rocks 
Of fair Lake Como, at Tremezzo lost 
In galleries, I stood right opposite 
The moon above the many mountain tops 
Away across the waters ; ready to faint ; 
Then recollections came from afar off 
Of father, sister, mother in the house, 
Appalling visions of a homesick brain 
Yet conscious of a beauty in the dark, 400 

Of marbles tangible, of rich arcades. 
Of waters fathomless as yonder moon. 
Of grottoes near, of terraces behind. 
Of vegetation most exuberant. 
Of fluted columns and ascending flights 
Of steps ; the air was balsam ; suddenly 
Arose Italian music and a voice 



I04 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act V 

Singing meseemed, The end of Paradise Road. 

Ye statues — soft — sleep on, this is a dream ! 

That dream of home, that is reality. 410 

Adel. You have a home. 

Vit. Em. But I shall home return. 

Adel. I am never homesick in your company. 

Vit. Em. But I could only bring you misery. 
Come home before the busy light of day 
Forsakes your worshiped Highness ; lead away. 

[Extends to her the point of his sword. 

Adel. Would you be shot profanely in your tracks ? 
These villain Austrians will murder you. 
I kneel to you where love anoints you king. 
My hands uphold, tears in my eyes, and beg 
More earnestly than suppliants to Christ. 420 

Why, then, into my temples stamp your heels 
Or fly with me away, I know not where. 

Vit. Em. Sweet Princess, I have duties to. perform 
More dangerous than foreswearing. 

Adel. Pity me ; 

Here runs a tearway down each cheek, dear soul, 
Then all the pity I entreat is this. 
That you will kiss me once between the tears 
And meet at that appointed rendezvous 
A thousand eons hence ; love me again 
When I am buried ; fear no treachery 430 

Beneath the coffin-lid ; swear hallowed love. 
And hallowed be it ; do not wrong the dead. — 
Still you stand firm ? 

Vit. Em. Firm as the tree of life. 

Adel. This cruel kindness kills me. Kill me then. 

[Runs at the edge of his sword. 

Vit. Em. Your Highness ! 

Adel. Kill me now, or execrate. 

[Catches hold of him. 
Now drag me home and I shall cling to you ; 
If you be taken I shall kill myself ; 
If you forsake me I shall tramp for you 
Like that Mahometan from Hol}^ Land 
Who liberated her dear father's slave, 440 

A'Becket, the crusader, then pursued, 



Act V PRINCE OF PIEDMONT los 

And put a chain of pearls around the world 
Too pure for aught but angels to behold ; 
But two words knowing, London, where she came, 
Faint on the thoroughfare to call his name. 
The mother of a saint ! Him there she found ! 

Vit. Em. Oh, not the softest sigh your lips release 
Neglects to veil me in a vapor thick, 
That for distress I only wish to weep. [Embraces her. 
What poor persuaders are our good resolves. 450 

Adel. Kiss me a hundred times, look in my eyes, 
Tell me a thousand things. 

Vit. Em. O sweet, for shame ; 

If you can cast your noble father off 
Thus easily, that quality in me 
That makes so fast a stranger to his love. 
In your abduction will destroy itself ; 
Leaving me most detestable to you 
And destitute of true nobility. 

Adel. I love you so. 

Vit. Em. Then love me, never cease. 

Ere night, narcotic of poor innocents, 460 

Has touched your eyelids fainting into sleep. 
Believe me, wayward child, your father's eyes 
Will drop the blessed manna on his knees 
To feed your penitence ; will you return ? 
Dishonor shuns me for your own sweet sake. 

Adel. Where you go I shall go. 

Vit. Em. You will not go? 

Your princely parents watch your fairy dreams 
Since you were but a saucy cry-baby. 
When you your mother's face again behold. 
In every tearway shall a wrinkle be. 4-0 

For her sake, Princess, if you love me come. 

Adel. What if with one eye teary I obey ? 

Vit. Em. But will you come? I knew Your High- 
ness would. 

Adel. Come, I shall hide you in my own country 
As Vivian holds the seer Merlin yet 
Bound in a four-walled tower forevermore. 
Lost in the forest of Broceliande. 

Vit. Em. I have a thousand roses' petals, too, 



io6 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act V 

Smoking with sweetness in an earthen jar, 

To make our parting kisses smother us. 480 

Adel. My thanks go begging for my ring-finger. 
From Prince Francesco of Calabria, 
Ablaze with jewels of surprising gifts — 
Sky-blue ceraunias from thunder-storms. 
And sought by magi ; water stones, no less 
Intense with blue, like rainbows in their play 
Of colors ; spinels with auroral tints, 
Found in an earthquake by the King of Oude ; 
And diamonds a bushel — from the Prince 
I would not have a loadstone ; but from you, 49» 

Would take away the only gem you have. 

Vit. Em. Count Veri says it is a chrysoliLe. 

[Puts his ring on her finger, 

Adel. I wear this for repentance. In exchange 
Pull all the rings from my fingers ; do, My Lord. 
My father's system is too delicate 
To be bemauled like Parma's, I suppose. 
Balm bathe your soul, good-night. 

Vit. Em. Not leave you here ! 

Adel. Take one last kiss and then another kiss. 

Vit. Em. Kisses like magic arrows falling out 
Of Cupid's qviiver filled with fleeting bliss. soo 

Adel. Oh, kiss me till yon stelled eyes go out. 
And only quarrel which shall be the last. 

Vit. Em. And every one the last. 

Adel. And fly away ! 

Vit. Em-. I cannot leave you here. 

Adel. Then come along. 

No, no ! too much I love to murder you. 
Desert me ! not too late ; no lover, fly ! 
Send me alone; these villain Austrians 
Are false as fire to a city sacked. 

Ran. [Coming forivard] Sir, you have been too faith- 
ful latterly, 
But you have loved her counter common sense. sio 

Enough ; here is the future's recompense. 

[ Throzvs a purse. 

Vit. Em. Love her as well — I challenge you — be kind ; 
Soft words can sweeten the renewing; South 



Act V PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 107 

Flattered by roses' fragrance; but words harsh 

The north wind chill. My duty to a bribe 

Not all the coinage of the sun can tempt ; 

Yet since you know me proud in honesty 

Lend me a trifle for a shift ; reproach 

Shall make your bounty homesick. Sir, adieu. — 

The same to you, fair Princess Adelaide. 520 

Adel. Oh, cruel to leave me ! villain if you do ! 
My father! I revere you, life I beg; 
Know this, I shall consort with love or death. 
Unless you petted me to murder me 
I mplore, command, compel him to remain ! 

Ran. Young lover, I absolve you from that oath. 
I ever plotted for her happiness. 
You have her, you may have her ; keep her well ; 
She was the Prince of Piedmont's promised bride ; 
No wonder you are still a hanger-on 530 

In death's eventful ranks, so many were. 
It is not often some poor gardener 
All in one quadrant of the dial-plate 
Can win an emperor's granddaughter ; well. 
Extravagances are precursors oft 
Of genius, beginnings of great men. 

Adel. Oh, kinder in affection I to you 
Than th' universe besides, my oldest love ; 
But say no more for fear you say too much ; 
Let him speak on, so shall the music keep. 540 

But Atlas, roll the world across my neck 
To hold me down. 

Ran. Hark, voices ! 

Adel. [To Vit. Em.] Sir, beware 

Of the sad time's stray bullets in the air. 

[They zcithdraiv. 

Enter fheKiNG of Sardinia, Lisio.c77/(/ other iSIinisters. 

Sar. How does he look ? When shall he come ? 
Lis. Alas ! 

Sar. Sav he will come though it be falsehood ; speak ! 
Lis. Sire, he will come. 
Sar. Liar, he will never come. 



io8 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act V 

Lis. Your Majesty's most noble son is gone. 

Sar. Gone ! like a picture painted on the wind 
By the mind only ! must I still commune 
With spirit, uncertain whether quick or dead ? sso 

Follow this spirit, we of flesh ! advance ! 
Oh, we shall follow to the antipodes. 
Thence and again, ten times around the world ! 
Haste, I am out of breath, I want my son ! 

Lis. [Aside] The fleeting faculties of gray-haired men 
Are pace-makers that run them quite to death. — 
We are no better here, Your Majesty, 
Than spies. 

Ran. Who travels there? 

Lis. The Count de Barge. 

Ran. I know you. Sire; I know Your Majesty. 

Sar. [To Vit. Em.] You know me, too; bend those 
unblushing knees s6o 

And beg for mercy. Hear what I shall do. 
Fearful forebodings, long delirium. 
Haunt and provoke and terrorize a king 
Who in imagination must pursue 
The forced excursions of his banished boy. 
Ungracious ! thoughtless ! I shall do a thing 
Whose weighty substance you will ne'er forget. 

Vit. Em. My father's shadow ! O Your Majesty, 
You suffered so. 

Ran. He cannot speak. 

Adel. [Kneeling by Vit. Em.] He smiles. 

Sar. Tell me what hours you wasted reveling? S7o 

Vit. Em. No later hours than love and marriage kept 
When you adored my queenly mother first 
And I was an imagination quite. 

Sar. [Motioning to a ministerwho produces a crown] 
This is Sardinia's royal diadem. [Puts it on Vit. Em. 

Adel. Th' Almighty blesses me right royally. 
Most with the knowledge of your sacrifice. [To Vit. Em. 

Sar. That it might make you King of Italy ! 
I abdicate in favor of my son, 
Victor Emmanuel ; there is your king. 

Adel. O Sire, I have kissed the thanks away s8o 

Before the mouth could open. 



Act V PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 109 

Vit Em. I improve. 

In estimation I have grown a mite. 

Ran. I might have hung Your rascal Majesty. 

[Kneels. 

Vit. Em. [To Sar.] You buy me into fashion sud- 
denly. 

Adel. [To Sar.] Sire, gray-haired men have never 
hated me ; 
Make this condition, he to marry me ; 
You see, I am the Princess Adelaide. 

Vit. Em. Your Highness, we shall keep you royally. 

Sar. My children, I am done with this fair land. 
This is the golden number, this the moon S9t> 

That fills one cycle of my sovereignty. 
My hopes with all my battles have gone round ; 
I run toward second childhood, let me die. 
But ho ! whatever time, whatever clime 
Its warring standard flaunts at Austria 
Will find me marshaled in the simple ranks 
Against the nightmare of her tyranny. 

Enter hastily Betting and Guards of the Duke of 
Parma. 

Farm. Lay hold on His Sardinian Majesty ! 

Bet. A sudden passion due to fear and rage, 
Relentless as a panic, goads the mob ! ^° 

As when a rat at bay dies in a fury 
Of fighting. 

Farm. Make that perjured traitor fast ! 

Bet. They drive our soldiers ; and our nobles, hang ! 

Parm. Now King of Italy ! — Strike ofif his head. 

Bet. Your Royal Highness, follow, save your life ! 
Hark, the enormous tramp of soldiery ! 

[Exeunt guards. Parm. holds Bet. back. 

Parm. Oh, bloody mongrels ! bastards ! villains ! curs ! 
Better a coward brood of demi-wolves 
By human-suited devils hybridized ! 
As you are brutish-minded, brutish-shaped ^'° 

Distorted men ! half doggish ! whose fell maws 
Less cynical, teeth less hyena-like. 



no VITTORIO EMANUELE Act V 

Could never snap and snarl so perfectly 

And run away ! [Kills Bet. 

Enter Pietro and Soldiers, zvith torches; ivith the 
Duke of Modena, Duke of Calabria, Earl of In- 
verness, Countess Laura, and other Noble Prison- 
ers; Pantaleon, Widow, Joanna, People, etc., 
folloiving. 

Shouts. Our own soldiers ! Our own flags ! Our 
own uniforms ! Our own ! Our own ! Hurrah ! 

Vit. Em. Well, Garibaldi, chief of patriots ! 
Hero of Venice, Cosenz ! Medici, 
Defender of Vascello ! Bixio, 

Sirtori, and Cairoli, Knights of the Legend ! ^^° 

You come most opportunely to our thanks. 

LaiL You have turned out too noble — just my luck. 

[To Vit. Em. 

Vit. Em. Henceforth be Duchess of your heart's 

content. 
To the malignant studying revenge 
Death, and revulsion for a thousand years. 

Farm. I shall never see my ducal palaces 
Or royal gardens more. This is our will. 
To lie in state in that cathedral porch 
Whose red and marble lions do look awry 
On Parma. I am breathing out my life. ^^° 

To fall is little ignominious ; 
Right glorious each time to rise again ! 
Now, King of Italy, hence ! shadow me ! 
To Hades headlong on the gloomy air ! 

[Rushes at Vit. Em. 

Pan. Enough for virtue! [Kills Farm. 

Joan. And for vengeance ! 

Pan. Kick, 

Tickle the devil with your fiddle-stick. 

Adel. The devil reaps damnation, he is dead. 

Vit. Em. His Royal Highness, Charles of Bourbon 
Third, 
Of Parma and Placentia is dead ; 



Act V PRINCE OF PIEDMONT in 

His birth was noble; though his deeds were base ^^o 
Let him be buried with liis ancestors. 
Let us repeat our gratitude whose bounds 
We have not the ingratitude to know. 

Piet. This night, the nightmare of the guiUy ones, 
Presents their fears with horrors manifold : 
Prince Metternich has fled to England fast ; 
The abdication of the Emperor 
Followed ; now Francis Joseph is proclaimed ; 
Count Lamberg charged with the supreme command 
In Hungary; Russia co-militant ^^o 

With Austria ! Hold fast to Italy ! 

Vit. Em. Kneel down, Pietro, and arise true knight. 

Adel. Why do you still so wonderfully kneel? 
For fear to bump your head against the moon ? 

Piet. Oh, let me kiss Your Majesties' right hands, 
And I shall rise to walk in fairy-lands. 

Vit. Em. You are my prisoners, and shall not budge 
Till you have pledged me King of Italy. 

[ To the noble prisoners. Exeunt persons bear- 
ing the bodies of Parm. and Bet. 

Mod. Thrice famous flesh ! when some forgotten lie, 
Tribes will be pilgrims to his cenotaph ; ^^ 

And into other veins his atoms flow ! 

Vit. Em. Bring forth Modena's miserable Duke, 
The squint-eyed bogy-tyrant of this land. — 
We banish you forever. 

Mod. By what right, 

Above the primal one to cry, do you 
Insult the heavens? 

Vit. Em. We, Vittorio 

Emanuele, by the grace of God 
Of Sardinia, Cyprus, and Jerusalem. King ; 
The Duke of Genoa and of Savoy, 

And Prince of Piedmont ; well considering ^7° 

The universal pleasure of this land. 
Our council having heard, and ministers ; 
We do decree, and it is now decreed — 
Ferrara, Massa, Parma, Tuscany, 
Placentia, Bologna, Reggio, 
Carrara, Venice, Forli, Lombardy, 



112 VITTORIO EMANUELE Act V 

Ravenna, and Modena, are annexed 
Unto the Kingdom of Sardinia. 

Adel. A gardener and a great potentate 
All in one quadrant of the dial-plate ! ^^° 

Since I have loved a beggar as a king, 
Will I not love a monarch as a god ? 

Vit. Em. Our ministers are charged with this affair — 
Let Parliament convert it into law— 
Which shall be furnished with the Seal of State, 
Inserted in the Government Archives, 
And published in the forenamed provinces. — 
Our best beloved and most noble cousin, 
Duke of Calabria, if we hear aright 
You shall not long the kingly honor wait. ^^o 

This salutation to His Majesty 
Of the Two Sicilies : A Secret Room 
Of Skeletons we hear Palermo keeps 
In the chief office of police ; beware. 
Or we shall have a peep in Sicily. 

Adel. I held you for some fairy prince elect. 
Who, loosed from a restraining hand, might drown 
Allotted prospects in a drinking-fit. 

Cal. Oh, if there were security in change 
Women would be as fickle as a wave. 700 

Adel. I am an hour in love. 

Cal. An hour in love? 

Two hours in love is too improbable ; 
Three hours in love is quite impossible. 
I dream, but when the light on dreamland falls 
The City of the Vespers shall not long 
Await the home-returning of its Prince 
Down the Ligurian and Tuscan seas 
Like an explorer old, in marvels versed. 
Sad at the ending of a happy tale. 

Vit. Em. My children, let us not forsake each other, ^^° 
But go together in the harvest-time [To the people. 
Where every man is counted as a man ; 
Arm ! arm ! put on Italian uniforms ! 
And keep together in the aftermath. 

Shouts. Hurrah ! hurrah ! The prophet of good times ! 
A new chief magistrate ! new champion ! 



Act V PRINCE OF PIEDMONT 113 

Rail. You shall have stomachs like Arabian mosques 
Rotund with feasts that I shall set 3'ou to. 
Come, Venus, star of evening is well out ; 
Before this world turns up the other half — 720 

After the King ! — feast to the golden calf ! 

Voice. Three cheers for Archduke Ranieri, hip ! 

Vit. Em. We have been ever of a brotherhood 
For kindness dealing kindness, come along. 
The Princess and myself will pay your debts. 

Shoitts. Bravo ! King Honestman ! hurrah, hurrah ! 

Adel. Do not neglect me, O Your Majesty. 

Vit. Em. I stifle the four winds with sighs, Your 
Highness, 
While men breathe heavily in Italy. 
Your country crushes mine in slavery. 730 

Between pur houses rapt in mortal hate 
Can ever peace be after so much blood 
Has drowned the valley of the Mincio? 
All round, out dying comrades in the throes 
Of mutilation — it was pitiful. 
There stood your kin in battle against mine ; 
And I, against your Emperor to kill, 
Down where Prince Sigismund your brother fell. 
Stretched in the general carnage. I wept blood. 
For truly I was wounded. Which will you ? 740 

Return to them or be my prisoner ? 

Adel. Kind, if Your Majesty be kind enough 
To take the trouble to secure me 
It pleases me to be your prisoner. 

JVit. Em. Straightway our marriage shall be solem- 
nized ; 
God make us monarchs of all Italy. 
My native land I will sweat blood for thee; 
I shall uphold th' Italian Tricolor, 
Vanquished to-day, to-morrow triumphing. 
When once upreared it never shall come down. 750 

Our dead are buried in these fastnesses-; 
They made their country's flag their winding-sheet. 
Proclaim throughout the land, To arms! to arms! 
For here no foreign flag shall ever float. 

[E.veuiit omncs. 



A.UG 171903 



